| Nanhsiungchelyidae | |
|---|---|
| Basilemys variolosa skeleton,Royal Tyrrell Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Testudines |
| Suborder: | Cryptodira |
| Infraorder: | Eucryptodira |
| Family: | †Nanhsiungchelyidae Yeh, 1966 |
| Type species | |
| †Nanhsiungchelys wuchingensis Yeh, 1966 | |
| Genera | |
Nanhsiungchelyidae is an extinct family of landturtles known from Cretaceous deposits in Asia and North America.[1] Nanhsiungchelyids were more terrestrial than many of their contemporaries, and may have gone extinct at theend of the Cretaceous as a result.[3]
The name Nanhsiungchelyidae was coined by Yeh in 1966, in the same paper in which the type genusNanhsiungchelys was described.[4] The name is derived from the name of the type species, with the suffix of a family, -idae, added to it.
According to phylogenetic analyses, Nanhsiungchelyidae is the sister group toAdocidae, and thus both are included within the cladeAdocusia. Nanhsiungchelyidae is split into two major clades, one including most of the predominantly Asian species (Jiangxichelys,Anomalochelys, etc.) and a clade including only the different species within the genusBasilemys.[5] When looking at recent analyses, it also becomes clear that some of the species ofZangerlia might not be the same genus, as the type species confidently gets placed in a very different position than the other two valid species.[5]
Multiple phylogenetic analyses have been conducted on Nanhsiungchelyidae, but one of the most recent analyses comes from Tong & Li (2018). In this analysis, we see 13 Nanhsiungchelyid taxa represented, withAdocus used as an outgroup.[5]Nanhsiungchelys andAnomalochelys are recovered as being in a clade together in nearly every analysis, and the same goes for the different species ofBasilemys. However, the placement of the different species ofZangerlia varies a lot between publications. Before the redescription ofNanhsiungchelys in 2018, the different species ofZangerlia were often recovered as being in a clade together, on the opposite side of theBasilemys-clade. This can be seen in papers like Sullivanet al. (2013) and Sukhanov, Danilov & Syromyatnikova (2008).[6][7] However, the phylogenetic analysis in Tong & Li (2018) does not recover this clade, instead spreading the different species out in the tree, recovering the type species as closer toAdocus than the others, which are placed in the clade that includesJiangxichelys,Hanbogdemys,Anomalochelys andNanhsiungchelys.[5]
Phylogeny after Tong & Li (2018)
| Adocusia |
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