Stylemys
Genus of turtles
Stylemys (meaning "pillar turtle") is the first fossil genus of dry land tortoise belonging to the order Testudines discovered in the United States. The genus lived in temperate to subtropical areas of North America, Europe, and Asia, based on fossil distribution. The genus was first described in 1851 by Joseph Leidy. The tortoise was common in the prehistoric Badlands, especially Nebraska and South Dakota. The species has also been found in the formations in and around Badlands National Park. Fossil fragments have also been found in the Palm Park Formation of New Mexico.
The ancient tortoises had primitive jaw muscles, unlike today's tortoises, which also display the os transiliens bone, and would have been herbivorous. While Stylemys species did exhibit the same neck structure as modern tortoises, the forelimbs were unsuitable for burrowing, setting them apart from modern genera.
01Species
A number of species have been described since the genus was named in 1851.
- S. botti
- S. calaverensis
- S. canetotiana
- S. capax
- S. conspecta
- S. copei
- S. emiliae
- S. frizaciana
- S. karakolensis
- S. nebrascensis (syn. S. amphithorax)
- S. neglectus
- S. oregonensis
- S. pygmea
- S. uintensis
- S. undabuna
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Stylemys”, 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.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Stylemys (1).jpg by Ryan Somma, CC BY 2.0
- Oligocene Titanotheres by Knight.jpg by Charles R. Knight, Public domain
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