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A New Species of Neurankylus from the Milk River Formation (Cretaceous: Santonian) of Alberta, Canada, and a Revision of the Type Species N. eximius

  • Derek W. LarsonEmail author
  • Nicholas R. Longrich
  • David C. Evans
  • Michael J. Ryan
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Part of the Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology book series (VERT)

Abstract

A new species of Neurankylus (N. lithographicus sp. nov.) is described on the basis of skull and shell material from the Santonian-aged Milk River Formation, Alberta, Canada. The genus Neurankylus is also rediagnosed on the basis of the Milk River material and on new material pertaining to the type species N. eximius. N. eximius previously was considered to be a long-lived and cosmopolitan taxon. New Neurankylus material provides insights into the range of morphological variation present in the genus and indicates that many specimens previously referred to N. eximius may belong to different species. The congeners recognized in this chapter have a more restricted geographical and temporal range than has been suggested previously. A new phylogenetic analysis of all known baenid taxa, including all described species of Neurankylus and several basal paracryptodiran taxa of uncertain affinities, yields two important results: a monophyletic Neurankylus is recovered as a basal radiation within Baenidae and parallel evolution is identified among many features previously regarded as synapomorphies for Baenidae. In light of this study and other recent work on turtle systematics, it is now apparent the biogeography and biostratigraphy of Cretaceous turtles may have been more complex than previously appreciated.

Keywords

Baenidae  Neurankylus Phylogeny Santonian Testudines 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We thank D. Brinkman, P. Currie, M. Wilson, T. Lyson, and the entire UALVP for helpful discussion, resources, and guidance, as well as T. Lyson and W. Joyce for providing the character-taxon matrix for the phylogenetic analysis. Financial support for this research was provided by the Jurassic Foundation and the University of Alberta, Department of Biological Sciences (to DWL), Alberta Ingenuity, National Science Foundation, and Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (to NRL), National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Graduate Scholarship and Discovery Grant (to DCE). Specimens were expertly prepared by I. Morrison, J. McCabe, and D. Lloyd. We are grateful to R. Audet for land access permission, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and the Sloboda family for logistical support, B. Strilisky and T. Lyson for access to specimens, and the 2007 Southern Alberta Dinosaur Research Group field crew for their hard work. This manuscript represents part of DWL’s MSc thesis at the University of Alberta. An earlier version of this manuscript was greatly improved by P. Currie, D. Brinkman, M. Wilson, A. Wolfe, and M. Burns. Reviewers R. Sullivan and T. Lyson and editors D. Brinkman and J. Gardner provided excellent constructive criticism for the improvement of this manuscript. Lastly, we salute Eugene Gaffney for his contributions to baenid research, without which the current study would not have been possible.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Derek W. Larson
    • 1
    Email author
  • Nicholas R. Longrich
    • 2
  • David C. Evans
    • 3
  • Michael J. Ryan
    • 4
  1. 1.University of Alberta Laboratory for Vertebrate PaleontologyUniversity of AlbertaEdmontonCanada
  2. 2.Department of Geology and GeophysicsYale UniversityNew HavenUSA
  3. 3.Department of Natural History (Palaeobiology)Royal Ontario MuseumTorontoCanada
  4. 4.Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval DriveUniversity CircleClevelandUSA

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