Adocus Explained

Adocus is an extinct genus of aquatic turtles belonging to the family Adocidae.

Description

Species of the genus Adocus had flattened and smoothly contoured shells with horny sculptured plates. The shells could reach a length of at least 50cm (20inches) for North American species, some species like A. kohaku had carapace length of 60cm (20inches).^[1] The largest species, A. kirtlandius had carapace reaching 113cm (44inches).^[2] These large freshwater turtles had an omnivorous diet. They lived from the Late Cretaceous to the Paleocene in North America, but in Asia, they were also present during the Oligocene.

Distribution

These turtles have been found in Cretaceous to Paleogene of Canada, United States, Mongolia, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Species

• Adocus agilis
• Adocus aksary
• Adocus beatus, type species (synonyms: A. punctatus, A. lacer)
• Adocus bossi
• Adocus bostobensis
• Adocus dzhurtasensis
• Adocus firmus
• Adocus foveatus
• Adocus hesperius
• Adocus kirtlandius
• Adocus kizylkumensis
• Adocus kohaku
• Adocus lineolatus
• Adocus onerosus
• Adocus orientalis
• Adocus pravus
• Adocus sengokuensis
• Adocus syntheticus

References

• The Paleobiology Database
• Paleocene Mammals
• Recently Collected Specimen of Adocus
• E.V. Syromyatnikova and I.G. Danilov
• Yale Digital Content

Notes and References

1. Hirayama* . Ren . Sonoda . Teppei . Uno . Hikaru . Horie . Kenji . Tsutsumi . Yukiyasu . Sasaki . Kazuhisa . Takisawa . Shunsuke Mitsuzuka and Toshio . 2022-03-14 . Adocus Kohaku, A New Species of Aquatic Turtle (Testudines: Cryptodira: Adocidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, Northeast Japan, with Special References to the Geological Age of the Tamagawa Formation (Kuji Group) LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:61376EEE-A386-416E-98AE-FF64FE2597A2 . International Journal of Paleobiology & Paleontology . en . 4 . 1.
2. Farina . Bruna M. . Godoy . Pedro L. . Benson . Roger B. J. . Langer . Max C. . Ferreira . Gabriel S. . 2023 . Turtle body size evolution is determined by lineage-specific specializations rather than global trends . Ecology and Evolution . en . 13 . 6 . e10201 . 10.1002/ece3.10201 . 2045-7758 . 10293707 . 37384241. 2023EcoEv..1310201F .