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Section: Paleontology
Topic: Paleontology

A baenid turtle shell from the Mesaverde Formation (Campanian, Late Cretaceous) of Park County, Wyoming, USA

Wu, Ka Yan1 ; Heuck, Jared2 ; Varriale, Frank J.3 ; Farke, Andrew1, 2
1 The Webb Schools – Claremont, California, USA
2 Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology at The Webb Schools – Claremont, California, USA
3 King's College, Department of Biology – Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA

10.24072/pcjournal.297 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 3 (2023), article no. e62.

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The Mesaverde Formation of the Wind River and Bighorn basins of Wyoming preserves a rich yet relatively unstudied terrestrial and marine faunal assemblage dating to the Campanian. To date, turtles within the formation have been represented primarily by isolated fragments diagnostic only to broader clades. A baenid specimen from the lower third of the Mesaverde Formation in the northwestern Bighorn Basin of Park County, Wyoming, includes a partial carapace and plastron and is the most complete turtle specimen yet described from the formation. The entire carapace would have been around 450 mm long and 380 mm wide, indicating a fairly large individual. The preserved portions of the carapace are smooth and unornamented, and the overall oval dorsal profile of the shell is similar to taxa such as Neurankylus spp. The anterior plastral lobe in the new specimen is squared off in profile as seen in Neurankylus spp., unlike the more rounded or triangular condition in Boremys spp., Eubaena hatcheri, and Baena spp., among others. The likely omega-shaped femoral-anal sulcus differs from the condition in Neurankylus spp., better matching the condition seen in many (but not all) Baenodda, although only one half of the fossil preserves the sulcus, and it may lie within expected variation for Neurankylus. Based on the overall combination of features in this Mesaverde Formation specimen, we tentatively assign it to Neurankylus sp., the first report for this taxon as well as Baenidae in the Mesaverde Formation of the Bighorn Basin.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.297
Type: Research article
Keywords: Mesaverde Formation, Laramidia, Cretaceous, Testudines, Baenidae, Baenodda
Wu, Ka Yan 1; Heuck, Jared 2; Varriale, Frank J. 3; Farke, Andrew 1, 2

1 The Webb Schools – Claremont, California, USA
2 Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology at The Webb Schools – Claremont, California, USA
3 King's College, Department of Biology – Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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Wu, Ka Yan; Heuck, Jared; Varriale, Frank J.; Farke, Andrew. A baenid turtle shell from the Mesaverde Formation (Campanian, Late Cretaceous) of Park County, Wyoming, USA. Peer Community Journal, Volume 3 (2023), article  no. e62. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.297. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.297/

PCI peer reviews and recommendation, and links to data, scripts, code and supplementary information: 10.24072/pci.paleo.100216

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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