Tortugas pleurodiras de Oriente Medio en las XLI Jornadas de la SEP

A pesar de que el conocimiento sobre las tortugas fósiles del Mioceno de Arabia Saudita es muy limitado, allí se han identificado restos correspondientes a varios linajes. Entre ellos destacan, tanto por su diversidad como por su preservación, los fósiles de pleurodiras. En uno de los trabajos presentados en las recientemente celebradas XLI Jornadas de la Sociedad Española de Paleontología se ha analizado el registro de podocnemídidos de la región. Allí se reconoce la presencia de dos formas, no atribuibles a ningún taxón hasta ahora definido. El resumen de esta contribución es el siguiente:

A synthesis on the faunal diversity recorded in the Early Miocene (Burdigalian) of the As Sarrar area of the Eastern Arabian Platform (Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, Arabian Peninsula) was presented in the early 1980s. The material analyzed came from Saudi Arabia-French paleontological expeditions held in 1977 to 1980. One of us (F. de Lapparent de Broin) carried out the preliminary results of the As Sarrar turtle fauna in a collective preliminary study of the expeditions, leaded by H. Thomas (1982). Several clades of Cryptodira were identified: Trionychidae Cyclanorbinae, Carettochelyidae, and Testudinidae. Furthermore, the presence of Pleurodira Podocnemidoidea was recognized, through the identification of two forms: cf. Schweboemys sp. [sic for Shweboemys)] and aff. Stereogenys sp. Both are currently recognized as members of Podocnemididae Stereogenyina. This preliminary turtle faunal list was given in that paper without detailed systematic justification and without providing any photograps. These taxa were later listed in her catalog of the fossil African turtles, with the addition of the presence of a Bothremydidae (also a Podocnemidoidea) in the As Sarrar Dam Formation. That material was listed and partly studied more recently, alongside with Mesozoic Indian turtles (Upparhatti fauna), with the mention of the As Sarrar “Shweboemys” presence. Thus, the detailed As Sarrar podocnemidid fauna remained unpublished until now. Furthermore, the information available on the fossil record of Podocnemididae, and specifically on that of Stereogenyini, has increased considerably over the last few decades. In this context, a detailed study of the Stereogenyina material from the As Sarrar area is currently underway, taking into account the knowledge about the diversity and paleobiogeographic and biostratigraphic distributions of the lineage. The main results of this study are presented in this contribution.

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Más información:

• Referencia: Pérez-García, A., de Lapparent de Broin, F. (2026) The podocnemidid turtles from the Burdigalian of As Sarrar (Saudi Arabia). In Narváez, I., Martínez-Pérez, C., Rodríguez-Tovar, F. J., Ortega, F. (Eds.), Libro de Resúmenes de las XLI Jornadas SEP. Palaeontological publications, 10, 87.