''Niolamia'' is an
extinct genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
n
meiolaniid turtle.
Arthur Smith Woodward
Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, FRS (23 May 1864 – 2 September 1944) was an English palaeontologist, known as a world expert in fossil fish. He also described the Piltdown Man fossils, which were later determined to be fraudulent. He is not relate ...
classified it as being in the genus ''
Meiolania
''Meiolania'' ("small roamer") is an extinct genus of meiolaniid stem-turtle native to Australasia from the Middle Miocene to Late Pleistocene and possibly Holocene. It is best known from fossils found on Lord Howe Island, though fossils are know ...
'', which this genus name is an anagram of, but this was not accepted by later authors. The genus is known from the
Sarmiento Formation in
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 ...
.
[''Niolamia'']
at Fossilworks.org ''Crossochelys'' was found to be a synonym in a review of South American Turtles.
References
Further reading
* Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins: Survivors in Armor by Ronald Orenstein (Pg. 43)
* Wildlife of Gondwana: Dinosaurs and Other Vertebrates from the Ancient Supercontinent (Life of the Past) by Pat Vickers Rich, Thomas Hewitt Rich, Francesco Coffa, and Steven Morton
Meiolaniformes
Prehistoric turtle genera
Eocene turtles
Prehistoric turtles of South America
Eocene reptiles of South America
Divisaderan
Mustersan
Casamayoran
Bartonian life
Lutetian life
Paleogene Argentina
Fossils of Argentina
Golfo San Jorge Basin
Fossil taxa described in 1899
Taxa named by Florentino Ameghino
Sarmiento Formation
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