''Niolamia'' is 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
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 southe ...
n
meiolaniid
Meiolaniidae is an extinct family of large, probably herbivorous stem-group turtles with heavily armored heads and tails known from South America and Australasia. Though once believed to be cryptodires, they are not closely related to any living ...
turtle.
Arthur Smith Woodward classified it as being in the genus ''
Meiolania'', which this genus name is an anagram of, but this was not accepted by later authors. The genus is known from the
Sarmiento Formation
The Sarmiento Formation (Spanish: ''Formación Sarmiento''), in older literature described as the Casamayor Formation, is a geological formation in Chubut Province, Argentina, in central Patagonia, which spans around 30 million years from the mid- ...
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
Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database
The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...
.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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