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Ragechelus sahelica
Discussion
http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:B201BDDE-1F71-49D9-8904-0D68D9595834 Etymology. From Sahel, geographical area of discovery.
Taxonomy
Ragechelus sahelica was named by de Lapparent de Broin et al. (2020). Its type specimen is MNHN.RA.2018.0078, a skull, and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Near Indamane village, which is in a Maastrichtian coastal gypsum in the Farin-Doutchi Formation of Niger. It is the type species of Ragechelus.
Synonymy list
| Year | Name and author |
|---|---|
| 2020 | Ragechelus sahelica de Lapparent de Broin et al. p. 466 |
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If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.
†Ragechelus sahelica de Lapparent de Broin et al. 2020
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Diagnosis
| Reference | Diagnosis | |
|---|---|---|
| F. de Lapparent de Broin et al. 2020 | A podocnemidid taxon diversified in the continental lineage of Erymnochelyinae posteriorly to the Gondwana break which separated Africa and South America. It is not a member of Stereogenyina because without their smooth, long and medially widened “secondary palate”. Diagnosed as unique: by the meatus quadrati shape, “narrow hot air balloon” shaped,i.e. notable for its great height for its width and inferiorly pointed, closer to Erymnochelys madagascariensis and to some of the Neochelys arenarum specimens, instead of wider and rounded in other Erymnochelyinae; by the flat and narrow anterior meatus wall without precolumellar fossa and with an incurved incisura columellae auris; developed triturating maxillary-palatine surfaces moderately widened, even barely posteriorly, with two strong crests, unique in erymnochelyines because the intermedial one is much less developed than the medial one, contrary to Turkanemys, Dacquemys and Mogharemys. Oblique inclined anterolateral border of the processus trochlearis pterygoideus as in Dacquemys. Long skull (phenotypic category), being longer for its width than in Neochelys, “N. fajumensis” and Mogharemys; moderately wide for its full length (79.20%), with a triangular snout but notably transversally wide anteriorly at the not pointed external naris, long palate and short basicranium (46% of the palate length up to this basicranium); as preserved (and possible when living) moderate postorbital roof cover joining approximately the mid length of the meatus quadrati superior border, with an incurved dorsal posterior notch; not much elevated skull, with a primitive straight oblique roof cover in lateral view, the more similarly with Turkanemys among the longer skulls category where the full roof cover is known, not being posteriorly elevated and rounded as the more globose Erymnochelys skull, and not being anteroposteriorly convex in lateral view and much roofed as Dacquemys. Similarly or not, according to a distribution in mosaic in other erymnochelyines: consistent interorbital width with orbits nearly laterally positioned, and with relatively moderate proportions: orbit height being less great than the interorbital space, maxillae relatively high below the orbits (height less great than the interorbital space) and antorbital space still less great, and shortest inter-premaxillae suture; external naris less wide than the interorbital space but its width greater than the orbit long transversal diameter. Relatively moderately widened carotid foramen, no ventral prootic. |
Measurements
No measurements are available
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| Source: f = family, c = class, subp = subphylum | |||||
| References: Uetz 2005, Hendy et al. 2009, Carroll 1988 | |||||
Age range: Late/Upper Maastrichtian or 70.60000 to 66.00000 Ma
Collections: one only
| Time interval | Ma | Country or state | Original ID and collection number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late/Upper Maastrichtian | Niger (Tahoua) | Ragechelus sahelica (type locality: 214919) |