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Dinochelys whitei

Osteichthyes - Pleurosternidae

Taxonomy
Dinochelys whitei was named by Gaffney (1979). Its type specimen is DNM 986-991, a partial skeleton (complete shell with associated postcranial elements; still in the matrix with the shell are both pelves, right humerus and scapula, and left(?) coracoid; about ), and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Dinosaur National Monument Quarry (CM), which is in a Tithonian coarse channel fill sandstone in the Morrison Formation of Utah.

Entered
by R. Benson on 2012-12-19

Synonymy list
YearName and author
1979Dinochelys whitei Gaffney pp. 100-101 figs. 3-5, 10
2000Dinochelys whitei Brinkman et al. p. 269 figs. 1-4
2008Dinochelys whitei Pérez-García et al.
2011Dinochelys whitei Pérez-García and Ortega
2014Dinochelys whitei Perea et al.
2019Dinochelys whitei Joyce and Anquetin

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RankNameAuthor
kingdomAnimalia()
—Bilateria
—EubilateriaAx 1987
—Deuterostomia
phylumChordataHaeckel 1874
subphylumVertebrata
superclassGnathostomata
classOsteichthyes
subclassSarcopterygii()
subclassDipnotetrapodomorpha(Nelson 2006)
subclassTetrapodomorpha()
—Tetrapoda
RankNameAuthor
—Reptiliomorpha
—Anthracosauria
subclassAmphibiosauriaKuhn 1967
—Cotylosauria()
—Amniota
—Sauropsida
classReptilia
—Testudinata(Oppel 1811)
—Paracryptodira
familyPleurosternidae
genusDinochelys
specieswhitei

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

†Dinochelys whitei Gaffney 1979
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Diagnosis
ReferenceDiagnosis
W. G. Joyce and J. Anquetin 2019Dinochelys whitei can be diagnosed as a paracryptodire by the full list of shell characters listed for that clade above with exception of a lack surficial shell sculpturing. Dinochelys whitei can be differentiated from all other paracryptodires by symplesiomorphically lacking a midline contact of peripherals I (in contrast to Selenemys lusitanica and Compsemys spp.) and a nuchal notch (in contrast to Dorsetochelys typocardium), by possessing a cervical (in contrast to Pleurosternon bullockii, Selenemys lusitanica, and Toremys cassiopeia) and a midline contact of the mesoplastra (in contrast to Riodevemys inumbragigas and most baenids), and by apomorphically possessing wide vertebrals and lacking superficial shell sculpturing.