Sichuanchelyidae Explained

Sichuanchelyidae is a family of extinct turtles in the clade Testudinata. It includes all perichelydians that are more closely related to Sichuanchelys than Meiolania, Helochelydra, or any extant turtles.^[1]

Systematics

The family Sichuanchelyidae was originally created to accommodate the Middle Jurassic Chinese turtle Sichuanchelys, and it was considered monotypic until Joyce et al. (2016) recovered the problematic Late Cretaceous turtle Mongolochelys from Mongolia as a close relative of Sichuanchelys.^{[2] [3] [4]} The late Paleocene form Laurasichersis from Europe is the youngest sichuanchelyid, showing that stem turtles in Laurasia outlived the Mesozoic.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Book: Hans-Dieter Sues. The Rise of Reptiles. 320 Million Years of Evolution. Johns Hopkins University Press. August 6, 2019. 53. 9781421428680.
2. H. Tong, I. Danilov, Y. Ye, H. Ouyang, and G. Peng. 2012. Middle Jurassic turtles from the Sichuan Basin, China: a review. Geological Magazine 149(4):675-695
3. W. G. Joyce, M. Rabi, J. M. Clark and X. Xu. 2016. A toothed turtle from the Late Jurassic of China and the global biogeographic history of turtles. BMC Evolutionary Biology 16(236):1-29
4. Joyce . Walter G. . 2017 . A review of the fossil record of basal Mesozoic turtles . Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History . 58 . 1 . 65–113 . 10.3374/014.058.0105 . 54982901 . June 6, 2019 . May 31, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190531131741/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1376/536c2532f31d85abb717ad953a4b283d7cab.pdf%3F_ga%3D2.250513540.362473231.1559202212-723086894.1556281898 . dead .
5. Adán Pérez-García . 2020 . Surviving the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event: A terrestrial stem turtle in the Cenozoic of Laurasia . Scientific Reports . 10 . 1 . Article number 1489 . 10.1038/s41598-020-58511-8 . 32001765 . 6992736 . 2020NatSR..10.1489P . free .