Reptilia - Testudines - Platychelyidae
From Cadena and Joyce 2015: According to Wagner (1853), the holotype of Platychelys oberndorferi was part of the collection of Dr. Oberndorfer of Kelheim, Germany. This specimen was transferred to Munich in 1866 (Zittel 1877), where it was studied by Maack (1869), Rütimeyer (1873) and Oertel (1915). Currently, the holotype is not to be found at the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie. It likely was destroyed during a World War II air raid that effaced much of the collections of Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie (Wellnhofer 1967). Although the holotype is now lost, it is well figured (Wagner 1853, pl. 1; Meyer 1860, pl. 18.4) and the application of the name Platychelys oberndorferi is uncontroversial. We therefore see no need for the designation of a neotype.
Full reference: A. v. Wagner. 1853. Beschreibung einer fossilen Schildkröte und etlicher anderer Reptilien-Ueberreste aus den lithographischen Schiefern und dem Grünsandstein. Abhandlungen der Mathemat.-Physikalischen Classe de Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 7:241-264
Belongs to Platychelys according to E. Cadena and W. G. Joyce 2015
See also Cadena et al. 2013, Danilov and Parham 2008, Gaffney et al. 2006, Lydekker 1889, Perea et al. 2014, Puntener et al. 2014 and Wagner 1853
Sister taxa: Helemys, Helemys serrata, Platychelys courrenti
Type specimen: BSPG lost, a shell (carapace and plastron). Its type locality is Compsognathus type, Kapfelberg (BSP), which is in a Kimmeridgian lagoonal/restricted shallow subtidal limestone in the Painten Formation of Germany.
Ecology:
Distribution:
• Jurassic of Germany (2 collections), Switzerland (1)
Total: 3 collections each including a single occurrence
Specimen images are retrieved through the ePANDDA API.
Click image to enlarge. Click to access iDigBio record.