Cyclanorbinae Explained
Cyclanorbinae, also known commonly as the flapshell turtles, is a subfamily of softshell turtles in the family Trionychidae. The subfamily is native to Africa and Asia.
Taxonomy
Morphological evidence supports Cyclanorbinae being the sister group to the Plastomeninae, an extinct subfamily of softshell turtles that inhabited North America from the Cretaceous to the Eocene.[1] [2]
Genera
The subfamily Cyclanorbinae contains the following three extant genera.[3]
One extinct prehistoric genus is also known from fossil remains: Nemegtemys, from the Cretaceous of Mongolia.[4]
Geographic range
Species in the genera Cyclanorbis and Cycloderma are found in Africa; species in the genus Lissemys are found in Asia.[5]
Further reading
- Lydekker R (1889). Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part III. Containing the Order Chelonia. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xviii + 239 pp. (Cyclanorbinae, new subfamily, p. x).
Notes and References
- Joyce . Walter G. . Revan . Ariel . Lyson . Tyler R. . Danilov . Igor G. . October 2009 . Two New Plastomenine Softshell Turtles from the Paleocene of Montana and Wyoming . Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History . 50 . 2 . 307–325 . 10.3374/014.050.0202 . 85505337 . 0079-032X.
- Jasinski . Steven E. . Heckert . Andrew B. . Sailar . Ciara . Lichtig . Asher J. . Lucas . Spencer G. . Dodson . Peter . 2022-07-01 . A softshell turtle (Testudines: Trionychidae: Plastomeninae) from the uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Hell Creek Formation, North Dakota, USA, with implications for the evolutionary relationships of plastomenines and other trionychids . Cretaceous Research . en . 135 . 105172 . 10.1016/j.cretres.2022.105172 . 2022CrRes.13505172J . 246803273 . 0195-6671.
- [Turtle Taxonomy Working Group]
- Web site: Fossilworks: Nemegtemys . fossilworks.org. 17 December 2021.
- "Cyclanorbinae". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
