''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

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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