''Chubutemys'' was an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of meiolaniform

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

. It lived during the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, around the

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0.9 M ...

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), a ...

border, within the Puesto La Paloma Member of the

Cerro Barcino Formation The Cerro Barcino Formation (also known as the Gorro Frigio Formation) is a geological formation in South America whose strata span the Early Cretaceous to the earliest Late Cretaceous. The top age for the formation has been estimated to be Cenoman ...

. It is known from most of the

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

and

carapace A carapace is a Dorsum (biology), dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tor ...

, and part of the

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

Description

A skeleton, including most of the

, is known for ''Chubutemys''. As the skull was found in the same quarry as the postcranial skeleton, it was decided to be likely to be from the same individual. The shell of the specimen is remarkably thin.

Classification

''Chubutemys'' is a turtle that is relatively easy to classify. Among related genera, Sterli ''et al.'' found ''

Patagoniaemys ''Patagoniaemys'' is an extinct genus of stem turtle which existed in central Patagonia, Chubut Province, Argentina during the late Cretaceous epoch (Campanian to Maastrichtian age). It is known from skull fragments and several postcranial elemen ...

'' to be the most unstable genus. The

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

below shows the relationships of ''Chubutemys'', and three possible placements of ''Patagoniaemys'':

Paleoecology

''Chubutemys'' is from the

. A locality of many turtles, nicknamed "Turtle Town", located within the Puesto La Paloma Member of the formation, contains fossils of ''Chubutemys''. The formation includes many layers of pyrloclastic-rich rocks, and the different layers are many different colours. The layer inside the Puesto La Paloma Member, which is coloured green, was dated to the

boundary.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16975724 Prehistoric turtles of South America Early Cretaceous turtles Early Cretaceous reptiles of South America Aptian life Fossils of Argentina Cerro Barcino Formation Fossil taxa described in 2007 Meiolaniformes Prehistoric turtle genera