Reptilia - Testudines - Pancheloniidae
The existence of this taxon has been hypothesized for more than 20 years (Hirayama, 1997) and is supported by phylogenetic evidence in the present study and in other cladistic studies of marine turtles incorporating multiple species of Late Cretaceous pan-cheloniid (Gentry et al., 2018). I propose the formal naming of this group as Ctenochelyidae after the stratigraphically oldest member of the group, C. stenoporus.
Full reference: A. D. Gentry. 2018. Prionochelys matutina Zangerl, 1953 (Testudines: Pan-Cheloniidae) from the Late Cretaceous of the United States and the evolution of epithecal ossifications in marine turtles. PeerJ 6:e5876:1-34
Parent taxon: Pancheloniidae according to A. D. Gentry 2018
Sister taxa: Argillochelys, Australobaena, Carolinochelys, Euclastes, Peritresius, Prionochelys
Subtaxa: Asmodochelys Ctenochelys
Type: Ctenochelys
Ecology: aquatic omnivore
Distribution:
• Paleocene of Denmark (1 collection)
• Cretaceous of Germany (1), the Netherlands (1), United States (10: Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi)
Total: 13 collections including 14 occurrences