Podocnemididae

Podocnemididae is a family of pleurodire turtles native to Madagascar and northern South America. Podocnemidid turtles are commonly called "side-necked turtles" in direct reference to their inability to retract their heads backwards, but hide them sideways. In addition, their pelvis[1] is fused to the shell which prevents any pelvic motion. Due to their pelvis being immobile they are unable to walk on land, which requires greater pelvis[2] mobility. For this reason, Podocnemididae turtles are best suited for swimming and as a result live in aquatic environments. These turtles are all aquatic[3], inhabiting streams and other flowing water. Their shells are streamlined to aid in swimming.

Podocnemididae
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous to present, 84.9–0 Ma
Yellow-spotted river turtle (Podocnemis unifilis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Pleurodira
Family: Podocnemididae
Cope, 1868
Extant genera

and see text

Synonyms

Podocnemidinae

Taxonomy and systematics

Podocnemididae has been merged into the closely related family Pelomedusidae as the subfamily Podocnemidinae. Some authors still maintain this classification,[4] but here it is preferred to keep them distinct families in the superfamily Pelomedusoidea instead.

The family Podocnemididae contains only three living genera, two of them monotypic:

The family also contains a number of prehistoric genera, including Albertwoodemys, Bairdemys, Bauruemys, Brontochelys, Caninemys, Cordichelys, Dacquemys, Lapparentemys, Latentemys, Lemurchelys, Mogharemys, Neochelys, Papoulemys, Peiropemys, Pricemys, Shweboemys, Stereogenys, Turkanemys, Cambaremys, Carbonemys, Cerrejonemys, Kenyemys, Roxochelys and Stupendemys.[5] Stupendemys lived around 5.5 million years ago in northern South America, and was the largest freshwater turtle and the largest pleurodire known to date.

References
  1. Wise, Taylor B.; Stayton, C. Tristan (2017-03-01). "Side-necked Versus Hidden-necked: A Comparison of Shell Morphology Between Pleurodiran and Cryptodiran Turtles". Herpetologica. 73 (1): 18. doi:10.1655/HERPETOLOGICA-D-15-00038. ISSN 0018-0831.
  2. Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo R.; Winkler, Jasmin D.; Wurst, Linda (2007-04-19). "Autopodial skeleton evolution in side-necked turtles (Pleurodira): Pleurodire autopodial evolution". Acta Zoologica. 88 (3): 199–209. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6395.2007.00267.x.
  3. Mayerl, Christopher J.; Brainerd, Elizabeth L.; Blob, Richard W. (2016-06-23). "Pelvic girdle mobility of cryptodire and pleurodire turtles during walking and swimming". The Journal of Experimental Biology. 219 (17): 2650–2658. doi:10.1242/jeb.141622. ISSN 0022-0949. PMID 27340204.
  4. Fritz Jürgen Obst (1998). "Pelomedusinae". In H. G. Cogger; R. G. Zweifel (eds.). Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 112–113. ISBN 0-12-178560-2.
  5. Eugene S. Gaffney; Peter A. Meylan; Roger C. Wood; Elwyn Simons; Diogenes De Almeida Campos (2011). "Evolution of the Side-Necked Turtles: The Family Podocnemididae". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 350: 1–237. doi:10.1206/350.1. hdl:2246/6110.
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