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New Material of the Platychelyid Turtle Notoemys zapatocaensis from the Early Cretaceous of Colombia; Implications for Understanding Pleurodira Evolution

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Abstract

Notoemys zapatocaensis is the youngest representative of the Platychelyidae, a group of Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous pleurodires. Here we describe two new specimens of this species represented by a partial carapace and a nearly complete articulated shell. Notoemys zapatocaensis is different from other platychelyid turtles in having: (1) two fairly reduced lateral tuberosities on the margin of the anterior plastral lobe, (2) a shallow notch on the posterolateral margin of the epiplastra, giving a convex posterolateral edge to this bone, (3) gular scales that are rectangular in shape and much wider than long, (4) a long intergular scale that has a slight medial contact with the pectorals, resulting in a complete separation of the humeral scales, (5) a central plastral fontanelle that projects posteriorly into the xiphiplastral region, (6) a very small marginal 3, (7) a slightly shorter neural 1 than neural 2, with an exclusive lateral contact with costal 1, resulting in a complete separation of neural 2 and costal 1, (8) narrower vertebral scales, and (9) peripheral 3 lacking a posteromedial contact with costal 2. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that N. zapatocaensis is a sister taxon of N. oxfordiensis, and that Proterochersis robusta can be resolved in two different positions in the testudines tree: (1) with Odontochelys semitestacea based on the fact that both taxa share two mesoplastra meeting at midline, or (2) as the most basal pleurodire, based on a suture articulation of pelvis to shell. Anal notch shape and potentially fontanelle size are indicators of sexual dimorphism in platychelyids.

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Acknowledgments

Fieldwork and this paper were supported by the Smithsonian Paleobiology Endowment Fund, and the Florida Museum of Natural History Miss Lucy Dickinson Fellowship. Specials thanks go to V. Lamus for his help during the fieldwork. Thanks to T. Gaona and J. Arenas (Muséo Geológico José Royo y Gómez, Bogotá, Colombia) and Lapparent de Broin (Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France) for access to collections, and to M. Iturralde from the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, La Habana, Cuba, for the excellent pictures of the holotype of Notoemys oxfordiensis. Thanks to D. Brinkman and C. Marion for editing this manuscript, to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Archeology, Panama), to the Vertebrate Paleontology Lab of the Florida Museum of Natural History for access to the preparation of the fossil, and to W. Joyce for access to the character-taxon matrix used in the phylogenetic analysis. Thanks to R. Rueda and M. Gonzalez for their continued support and inspiration.

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Correspondence to Edwin A. Cadena .

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Appendices

Appendices

Appendix 1

Description of the characters used in the phylogenetic analysis. Characters 60–83 represent carapace and plastron characters and are described here, whereas characters 1–59 were taken directly from Joyce (2007). Characters were polarized with respect to Odontochelys semitestacea, the source of the character, and if the character was modified or new is also indicated at the end of the description. Character 84 represents the only skull character, added from Cadena et al. (2010).

(A) Carapace

  1. 60.

    Ossification in the dermal component of the carapace: absent (0); present (1). Modified from Burke (2009).

  2. 61.

    Cervical scale(s): middle cervical wider than long (0); middle cervical as long as wide (1), cervical absent (2). Character modified from de Lapparent de Broin and Murelaga (1999) and Joyce (2007, Character 70).

  3. 62.

    Lateral arrangement between neural 1 and 2, and costals 1 and 2: neural 1 contacts costals 1 and 2, neural 2 only contacts costal 2 (0); neural 1 and costal 1 exclusively in contact with each other, neural 2 only contacts costal 2 (1); neural 1 contacts costals 1 and 2, neural 2 contacts costals 2 and 3 (2); neural 1 only contacts costal 1, neural 2 contacts costal 1 anterolaterally (3); neural series absent (4). New character.

  4. 63.

    Carapace posteriorly notched: present (0); absent (1). Pygal notch character from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  5. 64.

    Supramarginal scales: full series of twelve, on both sides of the carapace (0); incomplete series, restricted to the anterior margin on both sides of the carapace (1); absent (2). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  6. 65.

    Posterior lobe of the carapace: same width as the anterior lobe or slightly wider (0); tapering medially (1). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  7. 66.

    Articulation tubercule on the anterior face of the first thoracic rib: absent, smooth anterior face (0); present (1). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  8. 67.

    Thoracic vertebrae: cylindrical, longer than wide, keeled ventrally (0); smooth and flat ventrally, hexagonal in shape with central lateral notch (1). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  9. 68.

    Axillary process: contacts peripherals only (0); contacts costal 1 or the sutural contact between costals 1 and 2 (1). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  10. 69.

    Suprapygal 1: parallel-sided (0); tapers anteriorly (1); absent (2). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  11. 70.

    Vertebral scales 2 and 3: hexagonal in shape, much wider than long (0); rectangular in shape, slightly wider than long (1); hexagonal or rectangular, as long as wide or longer than wide (2). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  12. 71.

    Medial contact of the posterior costals: absent (0); present (1); present due to complete absence of neural series (2). Character modified from Joyce (2007, Character 68).

  13. 72.

    Lateral position of the sulcus between vertebrals 3 and 4 in taxa with five vertebrals: sulcus positioned on costal 6 (0); sulcus positioned on costal 5 (1). Character modified from Joyce (2007, Character 74).

(B) Plastron

  1. 73.

    Posterior epiplastral process: present (0); absent (1). Character from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  2. 74.

    Posterior entoplastral process: present (0); absent (1). Character from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  3. 75.

    Entoplastron participation in the anterior margin of the plastron in ventral view: wide participation (0); short participation (1); lacking participation (2). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  4. 76.

    Intergular scale(s): covering slightly the anterior portion of the entoplastron (0); covering most of the entoplastron posteriorly (1); not covering the entoplastron (2). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  5. 77.

    Anterior plastral lobe margin: defined by tuberosities, dentate margin (0); very reduced tuberosities, straight to slightly dentate margin (1); lacking tuberosities, smooth, highly convex margin (2). New character.

  6. 78.

    Mesoplastra: two pairs meeting at the midline of the plastron (0); one pair of mesoplastra, with midline contact or reaching the central fontanelle margin (1); one pair of mesoplastra, wider than long, without midline contact, (2); one pair of mesoplastra, as long as wide, without midline contact, (3); mesoplastra absent (4). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  7. 79.

    Central plastral fontanelle: absent (0); present (1). Character modified from Cadena and Gaffney (2005).

  8. 80.

    Anal notch: absent,with straight to slightly concave posterior edge of the xiphiplastra (0); present, well-developed in open U- or V-shape (1). Character modified from Joyce (2007, Character 87).

  9. 81.

    Sutural articulation of pelvis to shell: absent (0); present (1). Character modified from Joyce (2007, Character 125).

  10. 82.

    Iliac scar: absent (0); extends from costals onto the peripherals (1); restricted to costal 8 (2); positioned on costal 8 and pygal, sometimes reaching costal 7 (3). Character modified from Joyce (2007, Character 127).

  11. 83.

    Shape of ilium articular site: narrow and pointed posteriorly (0); oval (1). Character from de la Fuente and Iturralde-Vinent (2001).

(C) Skull

  1. 84.

    Pterygoid, cavum pterygoidei = fossa podocnemidoid of de Lapparent de Broin (2000): absent (0); shallow and slightly hidden anteromedially by the underlapping basisphenoid medially and laterally by the pterygoid (1); deep and partially to totally covered by the pterygoid flange (posterolateral wings of the pterygoid) (2). Character taken from Cadena et al. (2010).

Appendix 2

Character matrix (20 taxa and 84 characters) used for phylogenetic analysis (Nexus file as Supplementary Data 1). Multistate 0 or 1 is represented by “a”, and ‘not applicable’ by “–”.

Odontochelys semitestacea

000???????0???0?????????????????0?0??00????0?00????????????0?????????????0000000–??0

Proganochelys quenstedti

000000000000–00000000000000000000000?000000000000000000000010?000000?0??0010010000?0

Proterochersis robusta

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????10?010000?0??00100001110?

Australochelys africanus

???????10?0???00?0???0??00?0??001001??10000000??1?0?100?0???????????????????????????

Palaeochersis talampayensis

00000?01000???00000000??00001?0?1001?0100000000?1?0?100????1??0?0???????001?1??00??0

Kayentachelys aprix

00001011110??10000001100001010011011?01000000000100?10100001001200?000001010110000?0

Platychelys oberndorferi

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????100111111010011201211110?

Notoemys laticentralis

??????????????????????????????2110???11?0??????01?0?1010???100121111100011???211121?

Notoemys zapatocaensis

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????101121111010011211211121?

Notoemys oxfordiensis

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????1001211?1????1?212211121?

Araripemys barretoi

1––1010111111100030111000021102111231111010001001001101?0011?2120?0?22011022241a11310

Dortoka vasconica

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????112120001221111202401131?

Brasilemys josai

1––1010111111100010111???????02111231111010001001001101????1201200012211???????????1

Cearachelys placidoi

1––101011111110101011100002110211123111101000100100110100?11201200?12201112023011??0

Bauremys elegans

1––1010111111100010?110000211021?123111101000100?001?0?0001123?200012211112023011?12

Podocnemis expansa

1––10101111111000101110000211021112311110100a100100110100011231200012211112023011312

Pelomedusa subrufa

1––101011111110003011100002110211123111101000100100110120011231200012211112023011310

Phrynops geoffroanus

0110011111011101–2011100001010211023111101000001100110120101141200012221112024011310

Chelus fimbriata

1––0011110011101020111000010102110231111010000001001101?0101101200012211112024011310

Teneremys lapparenti

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????112120??12211112023??1???

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Cadena, E.A., Jaramillo, C.A., Bloch, J.I. (2013). New Material of the Platychelyid Turtle Notoemys zapatocaensis from the Early Cretaceous of Colombia; Implications for Understanding Pleurodira Evolution. In: Brinkman, D., Holroyd, P., Gardner, J. (eds) Morphology and Evolution of Turtles. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4309-0_8

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