Reptilia - Testudines - Testudinidae

The holotype is on permanent loan to the Florida Museum of Natural History from The National Museum of The Bahamas.

We name this new fossil tortoise in honor of Nancy and Michael Albury of Man of War Cay, The Bahamas, in recognition of their efforts to conserve Sawmill Sink and other unique natural features on and near Great Abaco Island. The Alburys are prominent members of the Abaco Friends of the Environment, and Michael Albury serves as President of the Friends group and a council member of the Bahamas National Trust. Nancy Albury was instrumental in bringing international attention to the Sawmill Sink fossils and serves as Coordinator of the Sawmill Sink Project representing the Bahamian government. She also was responsible for cleaning, preserving, curating, and storing the Sawmill Sink fossils and for most of the photographs used in the description.

Full reference: F. Franz and S. F. Franz. 2009. A New Fossil Land Tortoise in the Genus Chelonoidis (Testudines: Testudinidae) From the Northern Bahamas, With an Osteological Assessment of Other Neotropical Tortoises. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 44(1):1-44

Belongs to Chelonoidis according to R. Franz et al. 2020

See also Albury et al. 2018, Franz and Franz 2009, Rhodin et al. 2015 and Vlachos 2018

Sister taxa: none

Subtaxa: Chelonoidis alburyorum alburyorum Chelonoidis alburyorum keegani Chelonoidis alburyorum sementis

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Type specimen: UF 225400 (NMB.AB50.T1), a skeleton (complete shell, complete skull (minus the mandible), 4 cervical and 16 caudal vertebrae, complete pectoral and pelvic girdles, front and hind limbs, and 4 termi). Its type locality is Sawmill Sink peat, which is in a Holocene sinkhole peat in the Bahamas.

Ecology: ground dwelling herbivore-herbivore

Distribution:

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Specimen images are retrieved through the ePANDDA API.