''Kurmademys'' is an extinct genus of side-necked

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 ...

which existed in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

during the

late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

period. It was first named in 2001, by

Eugene S. Gaffney Eugene S. Gaffney is an American paleontologist and leading authority on the morphology and evolutionary history of turtles. Biography Gaffney graduated from Rutgers University, Rutgers State University in 1965 and received his PhD in 1969 with a ...

Sankar Chatterjee Sankar Chatterjee (born May 28, 1943) is a paleontologist, and is the Paul W. Horn Professor of Geosciences at Texas Tech University and Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of ...

, and Dhiraj K. Rudra, and contains the species ''Kurmademys kallamedensis''. The species name is derived from the Kallamedu Formation of southern India, where the type specimen of the genus was discovered. It was assigned to the family

Bothremydidae Bothremydidae is an extinct family of side-necked turtles (Pleurodira) known from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. They are closely related to Podocnemididae, and are amongst the most widely distributed pleurodire groups, with their fossils having be ...

References

External links

''Kurmademys''
at the

Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms. History The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...

Late Cretaceous turtles of Asia Bothremydidae Fossils of India Prehistoric turtle genera Taxa named by Eugene S. Gaffney {{paleo-turtle-stub