Araripemydidae is a family of freshwater aquatic turtles belonging to the order

Pleurodira The Pleurodira are one of the two living suborders of turtles, the other being the Cryptodira. The division between these two suborders represents a very deep evolutionary divide between two very different types of turtles. The physical differen ...

(side-necked turtles), known from the Early Cretaceous of South America and Africa. The family contains two recognised monotypic genera, ''

Araripemys ''Araripemys'' is an extinct marine turtle genus from 112 to 109 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous Crato and Romualdo Formations of the Araripe Basin in northeastern Brazil. It is one of the oldest known pleurodire The Pleurodira ...

'' and '' Taquetochelys'', from the

Santana Group The Santana Group is a geologic group, formerly included as the middle part of the Araripe Group, in the Araripe Basin of northeastern Brazil. The group comprises the Crato, Ipubi and Romualdo Formations and is dated to the Aptian to Albian st ...

of Brazil and the

Elrhaz Formation The Elrhaz Formation is a geological formation in Niger, central Africa. Its strata date back to the Early Cretaceous, about 125 to 112 million years ago. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, alongs ...

of Niger, respectively, which date to the

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago) ...

Albian The Albian is both an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch/s ...

stages of the Early Cretaceous. They are consider to be the most basal lineage within the

Pelomedusoides The Pleurodira are one of the two living suborders of turtles, the other being the Cryptodira. The division between these two suborders represents a very deep evolutionary divide between two very different types of turtles. The physical differenc ...

. They are thought to have been specialised

suction feeder Aquatic feeding mechanisms face a special difficulty as compared to feeding on land, because the density of water is about the same as that of the prey, so the prey tends to be pushed away when the mouth is closed. This problem was first identifi ...

s. ''Laganemys'' was named in 2013 but was later determined to be synonymous with ''Taquetochelys.''

References

Prehistoric reptiles of South America Late Cretaceous first appearances Paleocene extinctions Prehistoric turtles Pleurodira Prehistoric reptile families {{paleo-turtle-stub