Iberoccitanemys Explained

Iberoccitanemys (meaning "Iberoccitanian turtle") is an extinct genus of turtle from the Bothremydidae^[1] that is known from the Marnes d'Auzas Formation in France, and also the Sobrepena Formation and Villalba de la Sierra Formation in Spain.

Discovery and naming

Two species are known: I. convenarum (the type) and I. atlanticum, which were both referred to other genera^[2] before being moved to Iberoccitanemys; the genus was named by Perez-Garcia, Ortega & Murelaga (2012).

The type species, I. convenarum, was initially placed within Elochelys as E. convenarum by Laurent, Tong & Claude (2002).^[3] It was moved to Iberoccitanemys when the genus was named in 2012 and is based on the holotype, MDEt Cas2-259, a nearly complete shell from the Marnes d'Auzas Formation in France.

The second species, I. atlanticum, was initially placed within Polysternon as P. atlanticum by de Lapparent de Broin & Murelaga (1996). P. atlanticum was redescribed as a species of Iberoccitanemys by Perez-Garcia, Ortega & Murelaga (2021).^[4] The holotype is MCNA 6316, from the Sobrepena Formation in Spain.

Notes and References

1. Pérez-García . Adán . Ortega . Francisco . Murelaga . Xabier . 2012 . A new genus of Bothremydidae (Chelonii, Pleurodira) in the Cretaceous of Southwestern Europe . Geobios . 45 . 2 . 219–229 . 10.1016/j.geobios.2011.03.001 . 2012Geobi..45..219P . 0016-6995.
2. de Lapparent de Broin, F. & Murelaga, X. (1996). Une nouvelle faune de chéloniens dans le crétacé supérieur européen. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences 323: 729-735
3. Y. Laurent, H. Tong, and J. Claude. (2002). New side-necked turtle (Pleurodira: Bothremydidae) from the Upper Maastrichtian of the Petites-Pyrenees (Haute-Garonne, France). Cretaceous Research 23:465-471
4. PÉREZ-GARCÍA . Adán . ORTEGA . Francisco . MURELAGA . Xabier . 2021 . Iberoccitanemys atlanticum (Lapparent de Broin & Murelaga, 1996) n. comb.: new data on the diversity and paleobiogeographic distributions of the Campanian-Maastrichtian bothremydid turtles of Europe.. Comptes Rendus Palevol . 32 . 10.5852/cr-palevol2021v20a32 . 1777-571X. free .