North Gondwana Pleurodiran Turtles

An early bothremydid from the Arlington Archosaur Site of Texas

“…Pleurodiran fossils typically come from relatively warm regions, and have a more limited distribution than Cryptodira (hidden-neck turtles) [3][4][5][6] . Living pleurodires are restricted to tropical regions once belonging to Gondwana 7,8 . The separation of Laurasia and Gondwana and subsequent fragmentation of their landmasses in the Early Cretaceous, along with variations in global temperatures, affected the distribution of some pleurodire lineages 3,9 .One pleurodiran lineage, Bothremydodda (Taphrosphyini + Bothremydini, sensu Gaffney et al 10 ) is the only published pleurodiran lineage to disperse from Gondwana to Laurasia in the Cretaceous 5 .…”