Redescription of the soft-shell turtle Rafetus bohemicus (Testudines, Trionychidae) from the Early Miocene of Czechia

PeerJ

article

Milan Chroust¹  Martin Mazuch¹  Martin Ivanov³  David M. Alba⁴  Àngel H. Luján³ 

[1] Charles University, Institute of Geology and Palaeontology;Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Department of Paleobiology and Paleoecology;Masaryk University, Department of Geological Sciences;Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

关键词: Trionyx;    Rafetus;    Bohemia;    Most Basin;    Břešt’any;    Burdigalian;    Trionychinae;    Czech Republic;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.15658

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

The taxonomy of the soft-shell turtle Rafetus bohemicus (Liebus, 1930), family Trionychidae, subfamily Trionychinae, is revised based on new and previously mentioned material (including the type material) from the Early Miocene (Burdigalian, MN 3) sites of the Most Basin, Czechia. Given that the diagnosis was so far based only on plastral elements, here we focused on the cranial material and combined our study with previously published data on postcranial elements. 3D models of the skulls derived from CT scans allow us to provide the first complete skull description of R. bohemicus, including several new cranial diagnostic characters of the species. Our results not only enable the distinction of the trionychid genera Trionyx and Rafetus, both recorded from Central Europe during the Early Miocene, but further allow us to provide an emended diagnosis for R. bohemicus. We confirm the conclusions of a previous study according to which Trionyx pontanus, T. preschenensis, T. aspidiformis, and T. elongatus are nomina dubia. R. bohemicus from Břešt’any (MN 3) represents the oldest record of this genus in Europe as well as the oldest occurrence of the genus.

【 授权许可】

CC BY