Baenidae is a clade of paracryptodiran turtles known fromthe late Early Cretaceous to Eocene of North America. The proposedsister-group relationship of Baenidae to Pleurosternidae, a group of turtlesknown from sediments dated as early as the Late Jurassic, suggests a ghostlineage that crosses the early Early Cretaceous. We here document a newspecies of paracryptodiran turtle, Lakotemys australodakotensis gen. and sp. nov., from the EarlyCretaceous (Berriasian to Valanginian) Lakota Formation of South Dakotabased on a poorly preserved skull and two partial shells. Lakotemys australodakotensis is most readilydistinguished from all other named Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceousparacryptodires by having a broad, baenid-like skull with expandedtriturating surfaces and a finely textured shell with a large suprapygal Ithat laterally contacts peripheral X and XI and an irregularly shapedvertebral V that does not lap onto neural VIII and that forms twoanterolateral processes that partially separate the vertebral IV fromcontacting pleural IV. A phylogenetic analysis suggests that Lakotemys australodakotensis is a baenid,thereby partially closing the previously noted gap in the fossil record.