Global InformationPlatychelyidae information
| Platychelyidae Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Platychelys oberndorferi | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Testudines |
| Clade: | Pan-Pleurodira |
| Family: | †Platychelyidae Bräm, 1965 |
| Genera | |
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Platychelyidae is an extinct family of pan-pleurodiran turtles, known from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Europe, South America, North America, and the Caribbean. It represents the oldest known clade of stem-pleurodires. All known members have been found in marine or coastal deposits. Despite this, their limb morphology suggests that they were not adapted for open marine conditions, but were likely inhabitants of shallow water environments, including brackish and saline waters, and they likely never inhabited environments more marine than lagoons. Their tolerance for saline environments likely aided their dispersal during the breakup of Pangea.[1] Unlike modern pleurodires, which retract their necks to the sides, Platychelys retracted its neck inwards, similar to modern cryptodire turtles. Platychelys is strongly morphologically similar to mata mata and snapping turtles, suggesting that it had a similar ecology as a ram or suction feeder.[2]
- ^ Cadena, Edwin; Joyce, Walter G. (April 2015). "A Review of the Fossil Record of Turtles of the Clades Platychelyidae and Dortokidae". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 56 (1): 3–20. doi:10.3374/014.056.0101. ISSN 0079-032X. S2CID 56195415.
- ^ Anquetin, Jérémy; Tong, Haiyan; Claude, Julien (2017-02-16). "A Jurassic stem pleurodire sheds light on the functional origin of neck retraction in turtles". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 42376. Bibcode:2017NatSR...742376A. doi:10.1038/srep42376. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5312562. PMID 28206991.