The largest Cretaceous podocnemidoid turtle (Pleurodira) revealed by an isolated plate from the Bauru Basin, south-central Brazil

Abstract

The Bauru Basin (south-central Brazil) fossils have largely contributed to understand the faunal composition of South American Cretaceous. Among those, several turtle specimens were retrieved from those deposits, all belonging to Podocnemidoidae, the single group known from the Basin. On the other hand, only incomplete shell elements indicate large turtles such as ‘Peirópolis A’. Another shell fragment, a large peripheral plate from the Marília Formation, is described here. Its lack of surface ornamentation, and deep sulci are generally typical for podocnemidoids. The plate exhibits a narrow knob slightly projected onto the pleuro-marginal sulcus, absent in any other Bauru Basin turtle. According to extant and fossil podocnemidoids measures, we estimated this individual reached 1 m of carapace length, exceeding in size all other taxa known from the Basin. This new report reveals a broader size variation among podocnemidoids from the Late Cretaceous of Bauru Basin and a morphological diversity previously unknown for the period, comparable to those of the Amazon Basin today, in which inhabits the largest extant podocnemidoid Podocnemis expansa. Furthermore, the occurrence of such large turtles implies the presence of perennial streams on the northeastern portion of the Bauru Basin during the Maastrichtian and a richer environment than previously thought.

Keywords:

• Podocnemidoidae
• giant turtles
• Bauru Basin
• Marília Formation
• palaeoenvironment

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to M. C. Castro, who discovered and collected the studied specimen. We also thank Historical Biology editor Gareth Dyke, and the insightful comments from Márton Rabi and an anonymous reviewer.