''Banhxeochelys'' is an extinct genus of
Geoemydid
The Geoemydidae (formerly known as Bataguridae) are one of the largest and most diverse families in the order Testudines (turtles), with about 70 species. The family includes the Eurasian pond and river turtles and Neotropical wood turtles. Memb ...
turtles that lived during the middle to late
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...
of
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. The type and only species is ''Banhxeochelys trani''. The genus name origin is from the pancake-like Vietnamese dish ''
bánh xèo
''Bánh xèo'' (, ) is a crispy, stuffed rice pancake popular in Vietnam. The name refers to the sound (from ''xèo'' – 'sizzling') the rice batter makes when it is poured into the hot skillet. It is a savoury fried pancake made of rice flour, ...
'' and the Latin ''chelys'', meaning turtle in Greek. The specific name honors
Đặng Ngọc Trần, the retired director of the International Cooperation Division of the Department of Geology and Minerals of Vietnam. The fossils of ''Banhxeochelys'' were found in Na Duong coal mine of
Lạng Sơn Province. The type locality of ''Banhxeochelys'' yielded more than 100 turtles, but only the 30 best-preserved specimens (14 adults, 8 subadults and 8 juveniles) were described and identified as ''Banhxeochelys'' because the rest are too fragmentary or poorly preserved for useful morphological data.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q71970151
Eocene turtles
Geoemydidae
Eocene extinctions
Extinct turtles
Fossil taxa described in 2019