Meiolaniidae

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Meiolaniidae
Temporal range: Middle Eocene to Holocene 48–0.003 Ma
Meiolania Platyceps.jpg
Meiolania platyceps
Niolamia.jpg
Niolamia skull
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Pantestudines
Clade: Testudinata
Clade: Rhaptochelydia
Clade: Mesochelydia
Clade: Perichelydia
Clade: Meiolaniformes
Family: Meiolaniidae
Lydekker, 1887
Genera

Meiolaniidae is an extinct family of large, probably herbivorous stem-group turtles with heavily armored heads and tails known from South America and Australasia. Though once believed to be cryptodires, they are not closely related to any living species of turtle, and lie outside crown group Testudines, having diverged from them around the Middle Jurassic.[2][3][4] They are best known from the last surviving genus, Meiolania, which lived in the rain forests of Australia from the Miocene until the Pleistocene, and insular species that lived on Lord Howe Island and New Caledonia during the Pleistocene and possibly the Holocene for the latter.

A similar form is also known from the Miocene Saint Bathans fauna of New Zealand.[5]

The family was once thought to have originated in Australia sometime in the Miocene, when the earliest Meiolania first appeared. However, due to the discovery of South American meiolaniids, including Niolamia in Eocene Argentina, it is now believed that the meiolaniids appeared sometime prior to the breakup of South America, Australia and Antarctica during the Eocene.

More recently, Eocene Australian remains have also been uncovered.[6]

Genera[]

Genus Year Named Species Fossil Location Temporal range Image
2015
  • G. auricularis (type)[7]
Eocene
Meiolania 1886
  • M. platyceps (type)[8]
  • M. mackayi[9]
  • M. brevicollis[10]
Miocene-Holocene Meiolania platyceps.jpg
Ninjemys 1992 Pleistocene
Ninjemys oweni.JPG
Niolamia 1899
  • N. argentina (type)[12]
Eocene Meiolania5.jpg
Warkalania 1992
  • W. carinaminor (type)[13]
Oligocene

References[]

  1. ^ Sterli, Juliana; de la Fuente, Marcelo S.; Krause, J. Marcelo (2015). "A new turtle from the Palaeogene of Patagonia (Argentina) sheds new light on the diversity and evolution of the bizarre clade of horned turtles (Meiolaniidae, Testudinata)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 174 (3): 519–548. doi:10.1111/zoj.12252.
  2. ^ Anquetin, Jérémy (2012). "Reassessment of the phylogenetic interrelationships of basal turtles (Testudinata)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 10: 3–45. doi:10.1080/14772019.2011.558928.
  3. ^ Sterli, Juliana (2010). "Phylogenetic relationships among extinct and extant turtles: The position of Pleurodira and the effects of the fossils on rooting crown-group turtles". Contributions to Zoology. 79 (3): 93–106. doi:10.1163/18759866-07903002. hdl:11336/84233.
  4. ^ Sterli, Juliana; de la Fuente, Marcelo S. (2013). "New evidence from the Palaeocene of Patagonia (Argentina) on the evolution and palaeo-biogeography of Meiolaniformes (Testudinata, new taxon name)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 11 (7): 835–852. doi:10.1080/14772019.2012.708674.
  5. ^ Worthy, Trevor H.; Tennyson, Alan J. D.; Hand, Suzanne J.; Godthelp, Henk; Scofield, R. Paul (2011). "Terrestrial Turtle Fossils from New Zealand Refloat Moa's Ark". Copeia. 2011: 72–76. doi:10.1643/CH-10-113.
  6. ^ Poropat, Stephen F.; Kool, Lesley; Vickers-Rich, Patricia; Rich, Thomas H. (2017). "Oldest meiolaniid turtle remains from Australia: Evidence from the Eocene Kerosene Creek Member of the Rundle Formation, Queensland". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 41 (2): 231–239. doi:10.1080/03115518.2016.1224441.
  7. ^ Sterli, Juliana; de la Fuente, Marcelo S.; Krause, J. Marcelo (2015). "A new turtle from the Palaeogene of Patagonia (Argentina) sheds new light on the diversity and evolution of the bizarre clade of horned turtles (Meiolaniidae, Testudinata)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 174 (3): 519–548. doi:10.1111/zoj.12252.
  8. ^ Owen, R. (1886-01-01). Description of Fossil Remains of Two Species of a Megalanian Genus (Meiolania, Ow.), from Lord Howe's Island. Royal Society of London.
  9. ^ Megirian, Dirk (3 December 1990). "Meiolania brevicollis sp. nov. (Testudines: Meiolaniidae): a new horned turtle from the Australian Miocene". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.
  10. ^ Megirian, Dirk (1992-01-01). "Meiolania brevicollis sp. nov. (Testudines: Meiolaniidae): a new horned turtle from the Australian Miocene". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 16 (2): 93–106. doi:10.1080/03115519208619035. ISSN 0311-5518.
  11. ^ Gaffney, Eugene S. (1992). "Ninjemys : a new name for "Meiolania" oweni (Woodward), a horned turtle from the Pleistocene of Queensland. American Museum novitates ; no. 3049". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. ^ Sterli, Juliana; De La Fuente, Marcelo S. (2011-11-01). "Re-description and evolutionary remarks on the Patagonian horned turtle Niolamia argentina Ameghino, 1899 (Testudinata, Meiolaniidae)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 31 (6): 1210–1229. doi:10.1080/02724634.2011.615685. ISSN 0272-4634.
  13. ^ "WARKALANIA, A NEW MEIOLANIID TURTLE FROM THE TERTIARY RIVERSLEIGH DEPOSITS OF QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA" (PDF). The Beagle, Records of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences.
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