Tag: bothremydidae

Eons Roundup 7

It’s another PBS Eons commission roundup day!

  • An illustration of an extinct mammal related to marsupials, climbing on a tree branch. It's an opposum-like animal with protruding fangs and a long furred tail.
    Pucadelphys andinus
  • An illustration of an extinct mammal related to marsupials. It's a mouse-like animal with large ears and a long naked tail.
    Khasia cordillerensis
  • A lineart illustration of an extinct mammal related to marsupials. It's a bear-like animal with a short deep blunt snout, four stocky plantigrade limbs, and a long tail.
    Paraborhyaena boliviana

The metatherian mammals Pucadelphysand Khasia, and lineart of the sparassodont Paraborhyaena, from “How South America Made the Marsupials”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5doyrUWFbE

  • An illustration of an extinct relative of modern crocodiles. It has a long gharial-like snout, a slightly hunchbacked body, four paddle-like legs, and a long vertically flattened tail.
    Acherontisuchus guajiraensis
  • An illustration of an extinct swimming turtle. It has a very wide and flat carapace, almost circular in shape.
    Puentemys mushaisaensis

The dyrosaurid crocodyliform Acherontisuchus and the bothremydid turtle Puentemys, from “How a Hot Planet Created the World’s Biggest Snake”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-hDNbM-WLk

  • An illustration of an extinct early penguin, in both sitting and swimming poses. It has a long pointed beak and loon-like wings.
    Waimanu manneringi
  • An illustration of an extinct giant penguin. It has a long pointed beak.
    Anthropornis sp.

The early penguin Waimanu and the giant penguin Anthropornis, from “When Penguins Went From The Sky To The Sea”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMArjGQwLvY

Chupacabrachelys

Bothremydids were an extinct group of side-necked turtles that existed from the late Cretaceous to the early Miocene, between about 100 and 20 million years ago. Found across most of the world (with the exception of Antarctica and Australia) they were a diverse group occupying a range of ecological niches, inhabiting both freshwater and near-shore marine habitats.

Although their fossils are mainly just fragmentary remains like pieces of shell, Chupacabrachelys complexus here is actually known from a fairly complete skeleton.

Living in what is now western Texas, USA, during the late Cretaceous (~75 mya), it was an average-sized member of the group at around 1m long (3’3″) and was probably marine, swimming around in the shallow tropical waters of the Western Interior Seaway.

It had a particularly unusual skull for a turtle, narrow and triangular and slightly flattened, with elongated eye sockets. The paleontologists who described Chupacabrachelys thought the overall shape was vaguely reminiscent of a canid, and so that ended up inspiring its name — a reference to the mangy coyotes that are occasionally mistaken for the mythical chupacabra.