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Adocus

Extinct genus of turtles

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

01Description

Species of the genus Adocus had flattened and smoothly contoured shells with horny sculptured plates. The shells could reach a length of at least 50 centimetres (1.6 ft) for North American species, some species like A. kohaku had carapace length of 60 centimetres (2.0 ft). The largest species, A. kirtlandius had carapace reaching 113 centimetres (3.71 ft). 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.

Skull and shell of Glyptops ornatus, and shell of Adocus beatus
Skull and shell of Glyptops ornatus, and shell of Adocus beatus

02Distribution

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

03Species

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Adocus, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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