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| Morphology | Ecology and taphonomy | External Literature Search | Age range and collections |
Craspedochelys renzi
Etymology. In honor of the Swiss geologist Otto Renz, who discovered and collected the fossil turtle Otto Rentz's legacy also includes important geological and paleontological studies of the Cretaceous of Colombia and Venezuela. The discovery of Craspedochelys renzi represents a significant contribution to the understanding of thalassochelydian, particularly of the “plesiochelyid” turtles, extending their geographic range to northern Gondwana and their temporal range into the Hauterivian. This finding underscores the importance of reevaluating historical collections and highlights the potential for future discoveries in underexplored regions like northern South America. The presence of C. renzi sp. nov. in the Moina Fm. further emphasizes the complex paleobiogeographic history of costal and marine turtles during the Early Cretaceous. It also offers new insights into the evolutionary dynamics of Thalassochelydia and the still-controversial and unstable phylogenetic relationships within the group, issues that warrant further, in-depth investigation in future studies.
| Year | Name and author |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Craspedochelys renzi Cadena et al. |
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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.
| Reference | Diagnosis | |
|---|---|---|
| E. Cadena et al. 2025 | Craspedochelys renzi shares the following combination of characteristics with other thalassochelyians, particularly with members of “Plesiochelyidae”: (1) a V-shaped posterior plastral lobe, reduced in length and without anal notch; (2) an indentation of the sutural contact between the hypoplastra and xiphiplastra; (3) occurrence of an "intermediate" bone between the last neural (neural 8) and suprapygal 1; 4) completely ossified carapace and bridge to the plastron, and (5) lack of carapacial fontanelles. Inside “Plesiochelyidae”, it is attributable to Craspedochelys and excluded from Plesiochelys by: (1) a broader carapace, which appears to have been approximately as wide as it was long, as indicated by an estimated (as preserved) length/width ratio of 4.12 (103/25 mm) for the left costal 4—similar to other species of the genus with values greater than 4 (Anquetin et al., 2014, Table 3); (2) a relatively shorter plastron, and (3) proportionally wider hyoplastra. It is excluded from being part of Tropidemys by (1) its wider vertebral scutes, and (2) absence of neural keels. It differs from all other “plesiochelyids” by (1) suprapygal 2 small and in a nearly triangle shape, instead of being trapezoidal or pentagonal, and in posterior contact only with the pygal, without reaching the posterior-most peripheral bones, and (2) from all other the specimens of Craspedochelys spp., by exhibiting an incomplete neural series, where costals 7 meet medially, but costals 8 are separated by an isolated neural, potentially neural 8. |
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| Source: c = class, subp = subphylum, uc = unranked clade | |||||
| References: Carroll 1988, Hendy et al. 2009, Kiessling 2004 | |||||
Age range: Hauterivian or 132.60000 to 125.77000 Ma
Collections: one only
| Time interval | Ma | Country or state | Original ID and collection number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hauterivian | Colombia (Guajira) | Craspedochelys renzi (type locality: 242132) |