Fossil Record 21(2): 237-284, doi: 10.5194/fr-21-237-2018
The turtles from the upper Eocene, Osona County (Ebro Basin, Catalonia, Spain): new material and its faunistic and environmental context
expand article infoFrance de Lapparent de Broin‡, Xabier Murelaga§, Adán Pérez-García|, Francesc Farrés, Jacint Altimiras
‡ Centre de Recherches sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements (CR2P: MNHN, CNRS, UPMC-Paris 6), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Université, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 38, 75231 Paris CEDEX 5, France§ Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, UPV/EHU, Sarrienea s/n, 48940 Leioa, Spain| Grupo de Biología Evolutiva, Facultad de Ciencias, UNED, Paseo de la Senda del Rey 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain¶ Museu Geològic del Seminari de Barcelona, Diputacio 231, 08007 Barcelona – Geolab Vic, Spain
© France de Lapparent de Broin, Xabier Murelaga, Adán Pérez-García, Francesc Farrés, Jacint Altimiras.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: de Lapparent de Broin F, Murelaga X, Pérez-García A, Farrés F, Altimiras J (2018) The turtles from the upper Eocene, Osona County (Ebro Basin, Catalonia, Spain): new material and its faunistic and environmental context. Fossil Record 21(2): 237-284. https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-21-237-2018
Open Access
Abstract

Eochelone voltregana n. sp. is a new marine cryptodiran cheloniidfound at the Priabonian levels (latest Eocene) of the Vespella marls member ofthe Vic–Manlleu marls formation. It is the second cheloniid from SantaCecília de Voltregà (Osona County, Spain), the first one beingOsonachelus decorata from the same formation. Shell parametersindicate that the new species belongs to a branch of sea turtles includingthe Eocene Anglo–Franco–Belgian forms Argillochelys, Puppigerus and Eochelone (the shell of the latter was studied herefor the first time) as well as Glarichelys from the Oligocene ofSwitzerland, all of them predating the worldwide living Miocene genera. Thedescription of two other more littoral–continental Eocene species is given:Trionyx sp., from an older layer of the same formation; and thepodocnemidid erymnochelyine,Cordichelys from a more basal layer of a middle Eocene (Lutetian)formation. The last one is identified as the only evidence of theShweboemys subgroup in the European record, being distinct from theother known Osona County pleurodire Eocenochelus farresi, which is amember of the Erymnochelys group (same subfamily), from the youngerPriabonian Sant Martí Xic layer. Thus, an update on the marine turtlefauna of the eastern Ebro Basin that variably opened in the east duringEocene times is provided. The turtles of Osona County belong to two subordersand five genera with three new species and extend the known distribution oftheir families (LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:48CE8676-7B82-4EF2-8165-27BEE90129F2).