Kurmademys, a new side-necked turtle (Pelomedusoides, Bothremydidae) from the late Cretaceous of India

Related Titles

Series: American Museum novitates, no. 3321

By

Gaffney, Eugene S.

Chatterjee, Sankar
Rudra, Dhiraj K.

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

New York, NY American Museum of Natural History c2001

Notes

Caption title.

"February 27, 2001."

The Maastrichtian Kallamedu Formation of southern India near the village of Kallamedu, Tamil Nadu, has yielded skulls and postcrania of a new genus of side-necked turtle. Kurmademys kallamedensis, new genus and species, is based primarily on a single well-preserved skull. Kurmademys is a pelomedusoid pleurodire belonging to the family Bothremydidae Baur, 1891, with these bothremydid characters: (1) exoccipital-quadrate contact, (2) incisura columellae auris closed by bone, and (3) eustachian tube and stapes separated by bone. Kurmademys is unique among known bothremydids in having extensive temporal emargination, a small postorbital, a large precollumellar fossa, and a foramen posterius canalis carotici interni formed completely by the basisphenoid.

Subjects

Cretaceous , India , Kallamedu Region (Tamil Nadu) , Kurmademys kallamedensis , Paleontology , Reptiles, Fossil , Turtles, Fossil

Call Number

QL1 .A436 no.3321 2001

Language

English

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1206/0003-0082(2001)321<0001:KANSNT>2.0.CO;2
OCLC: 46403337