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A review of the Mesozoic turtles of the Junggar Basin (Xinjiang, Northwest China) and the paleobiogeography of Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Asian testudinates

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Abstract

Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous sediments exposed in the Junggar Basin have yielded a rich turtle assemblage. Jurassic taxa include the purportedly basal turtle Sichuanchelys sp. and at least six basal eucryptodires, which are currently united in the likely paraphyletic taxon “Xinjiangchelyidae.” Early Cretaceous assemblages, by contrast, include a single “xinjiangchelyid” and a single potential pantrionychian, but are otherwise dominated by more derived eucryptodires, currently grouped in the paraphyletic taxon “Sinemydidae”/“Macrobaenidae.” Comparison of the Junggar turtle assemblage with those of coeval Asian localities reveals that Jurassic turtle assemblages were rather homogenous throughout the Jurassic, but split in the Early Cretaceous. In particular, the Early Cretaceous Junggar turtle assemblage resembles those of other northern Chinese provinces, Mongolia and the Lake Baikal region of Russia in their retention of rather basal turtles, whereas all other Asian localities are dominated by more derived eucryptodires, particularly pantrionychians. This chasm may be the result of biogeographic, ecological and climatic conditions, where dry conditions in isolated inland basins created an ephemeral lake habitat optimal for basal eucryptodires, whereas the river environments typical of the surrounding coastal areas were favourable for more derived eucryptodires.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Don Brinkman, Igor Danilov and Thomas Martin for thoughtful comments and discussions that helped improve the quality of this manuscript. Don Brinkman is furthermore thanked for providing us with photographs and line drawings of an unpublished Annemys skull from the Junggar Basin, which served as the basis of our line drawing presented in Fig. 1g, h.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paleontology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, 1117, Budapest, Hungary

    Márton Rabi

  2. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Universität Tübingen, Sigwartstraße 10, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Walter G. Joyce

  3. Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, 170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

    Walter G. Joyce

  4. Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany

    Oliver Wings

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Correspondence to Márton Rabi.

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This article is a contribution to the special issue “Triassic–Jurassic biodiversity, ecosystems, and climate in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, Northwest China”

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Rabi, M., Joyce, W.G. & Wings, O. A review of the Mesozoic turtles of the Junggar Basin (Xinjiang, Northwest China) and the paleobiogeography of Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Asian testudinates. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 90, 259–273 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-010-0031-3

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