Reptilia - Testudines - Desmatochelyidae
(see Parris et al. 2014): This fossil has a fascinating story. The first half of the bone, the proximal part (ANSP 9234) was discovered before 1849 and was used as the holotype of this species. In 2012, more than 160 years later, Mr. Gregory Harpel, an avocational paleontologist, recovered the distal portion of a right humerus (NJSM GP23363) of a fossil turtle in active point bar deposits of a brook locality in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The immediate reaction from paleontologists at the time was to check it against the type of Atlantochelys mortoni, the expectation being that it would likely give details of the entire humerus of the genus. Remarkably, the new specimen actually fits precisely onto the type of Atlantochelys mortoni. The break between the specimens occurred at mid-shaft and the broken surfaces fit like puzzle pieces. The size and shape of the shaft, even the surface weathering, are identical such that there can be no doubt that these are two pieces of the same bone (Figure 1).
Synonym: Protostega neptunia Cope 1872 [objective synonym]
Full reference: L. Agassiz. 1849. Remarks on crocodiles of the green sand of New Jersey and on Atlantochelys. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 4:169-169
Belongs to Atlantochelys according to D. C. Parris et al. 2014
See also Cope 1872, Hay 1902, Hay 1908, Hay 1930 and Leidy 1873
Sister taxa: none
Type specimens:
- Atlantochelys mortoni: ANSP 9234 & NJSM GP23363, a limb element (right humerus in two halves). Its type locality is Monmouth Brooks (Atlantochelys mortoni type locality), which is in a Campanian/Maastrichtian marine horizon in the Mount Laurel Formation of New Jersey.
- Protostega neptunia: ANSP 9234, a limb element (partial humerus). Its type locality is Monmouth Brooks (Atlantochelys mortoni type locality), which is in a Campanian/Maastrichtian marine horizon in the Mount Laurel Formation of New Jersey.
Ecology: aquatic omnivore
Distribution: found only at Monmouth Brooks (Atlantochelys mortoni type locality)
Specimen images are retrieved through the ePANDDA API.
Click image to enlarge. Click to access iDigBio record.