''Pacifichelys'' is an extinct genus of
sea turtle from the
Middle Miocene
The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene.
The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma to 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma (million y ...
of
Peru (
Pisco Formation) and
California (
Temblor Formation
The Temblor Formation is a geologic formation in California. It preserves fossils dating back from the Late Oligocene to the Middle Miocene of the Neogene period. It is notable for the famous Sharktooth Hill deposit (otherwise known as Ernst Q ...
).
[''Pacifichelys'']
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 It was first named by
James F. Parham
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
and
Nicholas D. Pyenson in 2010, and the
type species is ''Pacifichelys urbinai'' from Peru.
A second species, ''P. hutchisoni'', was reassigned from the genus ''
Euclastes
''Euclastes'' is an extinct genus of sea turtles that survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction. The genus was first named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1867, and contains three species. ''E. hutchisoni'', was named in 2003 but has since b ...
''. It is known from the Miocene of California. Like the living
Ridley and
loggerhead
Loggerhead or Loggerheads may refer to:
Places
* Loggerheads, Denbighshire, a village in Denbighshire, Wales
* Loggerheads, Staffordshire, a small village in north Staffordshire, England
* Loggerhead Key, the largest islet in the Dry Tortugas, ...
sea turtles, ''Pacifichelys'' was
durophagous, consuming hard-shelled organisms with crushing jaws.
Taxonomy
Cladogram based on Lynch and Parham (2003)
and Parham and Pyenson (2010):
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7122818
Chelonioidea
Prehistoric turtle genera
Miocene turtles
Miocene reptiles of North America
Neogene California
Miocene reptiles of South America
Laventan
Colloncuran
Friasian
Neogene Peru
Fossils of Peru
Fossil taxa described in 2010
Extinct turtles
Turtle genera