First Turtle Remains from the Middle-Late Jurassic Yanliao Biota, NE China

Authors

  • Lu Li Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China
  • Jialiang Zhang State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
  • Xiaolin Wang Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China
  • Yuan Wang Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China
  • Haiyan Tong Palaeontological Research and Education Centre, Mahasarakham University, Kantarawichai, Maha Sarakham 44150, Thailand

Keywords:

Testudines, Xinjiangchelyidae, Yanliao Biota, NE China, Tiaojishan Formation, Late Jurassic

Abstract

The Middle-Late Jurassic Yanliao Biota, preceding the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota in NE China has yielded a rich collection of plant, invertebrate and vertebrate fossils. But contrary to the Jehol Biota which is rich in freshwater vertebrates, in the Yanliao Biota the aquatic reptiles are absent, and turtles have not been reported so far. In this paper, we report on the first turtle remains from the Yanliao Biota. The material consists of a partial skeleton from the Upper Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of Bawanggou site (Qinglong, Hebei Province, China). Characterized by a broad skull with a pair of sulci carotici and a remnant of an interpterygoid vacuity, a well-developed anterior lobe of the plastron with mesiolaterally elongated epiplastra and a relatively large oval entoplastron; it is assigned to Annemys sp. (Xinjiangchelyidae). This discovery adds a new element to the poorly known freshwater vertebrate fauna of the Yanliao Biota and extends the geographical distribution of Annemys to NE China.

References

Averianov, A.O., Martin, T., Skutschas, P.P., Danilov, I.G., Schultz, J.A., Schellhorn, R., Obraztsova, E., Lopatin, A., Sytchevskaya, E., Kuzmin, I., Krasnolutskii, S. & Ivantsov, S. (2016). Middle Jurassic vertebrate assemblage of Berezovsk coal mine in Western Siberia (Russia). Global Geology, 19, 187-204.

Brinkman, D.B., Eberth, D.A., Xu, X., Clark, J.M. & Wu, X.-C. (2013). Turtles from the Jurassic Shishugou formation of the Junggar Basin, People’s Republic of China, with comments on the basicranial region of basal eucryptodires, in: Morphology and Evolution of Turtles. Springer, pp. 147-172.

Danilov, I.G., Parham, J.F. (2006). A redescription of ‘Plesiochelys’ tatsuensis from the Late Jurassic of China, with comments on the antiquity of the crown clade Cryptodira. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 26 (3), 573-580.

Hu, X., Li, L., Dai, H., Wang, P., Buffetaut, E., Wei, G., Xiong, C. & Tong, H. (2020). Turtle remains from the Middle Jurassic Xintiangou Formation of Yunyang, Sichuan Basin, China. Annales de Paléontologie, 106 (4) https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.annpal.2020.102440.

Jiang, S., Wang, X., Cheng, X., Costa, F.R., Huang, J. & Kellner, A.W. (2015). Short note on an anurognathid pterosaur with a long tail from the Upper Jurassic of China. Historical Biology, 27 (6), 718-722.

Liao, H.Y. & Huang, D.Y. (2014). Jurassic fossil conchostracans from Bawanggou, Qinglong county, Hebei province. Journal of Stratigraphy, 38 (4), 433-438.

Lü, J., Unwin, D.M., Zhao, B., Gao, C. & Shen, C., (2012). A new Rhamphorhynchid (Pterosauria: Rhamphorhynchidae) from the Middle/Upper Jurassic of Qinglong, Hebei province, China. Zootaxa, 3158 (1), 1-19.

Matzke, A.T., Maisch, M.W., Ge, S., Pfretzschner, H.-U. & Stöhr, H. (2004). A new xinjiangchelyid turtle (Testudines, Eucryptodira) from the Jurassic Qigu formation of the Southern Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, North-West China. Palaeontology, 47 (5), 1267-1299.

Matzke, A.T., Maisch, M.W., Sun, G.E., Pfretzschner, H.-U. & Stöhr, H. (2005). A new Middle Jurassic xinjiangchelyid turtle (Testudines; Eucryptodira) from China (Xinjiang, Junggar Basin). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 25 (1), 63-70.

Nessov, L.A. (1995). On some Mesozoic turtles of the Fergana depression (Kyrgyzstan) and Dzhungar Alatau ridge (Kazakhstan). Russian Journal of Herpetology, 2 (2), 134-141.

Nessov, L.A. & Kaznyshkin, M.N. (1985). A lungfish fish and turtles from the Late Jurassic of North Fergana (Kirgiz SSR). Bulletin of Zoology, 1, 33-39.

Rabi, M., Joyce, W.G. & Wings, O. (2010). A review of the Mesozoic turtles of the Junggar Basin (Xinjiang, Northwest China) and the paleobiogeography of Jurassic to early Cretaceous Asian testudinates. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 90, 259-273.

Rabi, M., Sukhanov, V.B., Egorova, V.N., Danilov, I. & Joyce, W.G. (2014). Osteology, relationships, and ecology of Annemys (Testudines, Eucryptodira) from the Late Jurassic of Shar Teg, Mongolia, and phylogenetic definitions for Xinjiangchelyidae, Sinemydidae, and Macrobaenidae. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 34 (2), 327-352.

Rabi, M., Zhou, C.-F., Wings, O., Ge, S. & Joyce, W.G., (2013). A new xinjiangchelyid turtle from the Middle Jurassic of Xinjiang, China and the evolution of the basipterygoid process in Mesozoic turtles. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 13, 203.

Sukhanov, V.B. (2000). Mesozoic turtles of middle and central Asia, in: The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia, pp. 309-367. Sukhanov, V.B. & Narmandakh, P. (2006). New taxa of Mesozoic turtles from Mongolia. Fossil turtle research, 1, 119-127.

Sullivan, C., Wang, Yuan, Hone, D.W., Wang, Yuanqing, Xu, X. & Zhang, F. (2014). The vertebrates of the Jurassic Daohugou Biota of northeastern China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 34 (2), 243-280.

Tong, H. (2017). Testudines, in: In Li J. and Tong H. Parareptilians, Captorhines and Testudines, Palaeovertebrata Sinica. Vol. II, Fasc. 2. Science Press.

Tong, H., Danilov, I., Ye, Y., Ouyang, H. & Peng, G. (2012a). Middle Jurassic turtles from the Sichuan Basin, China: a review. Geological Magazine, 149 (4), 675-695.

Tong, H., Danilov, I., Ye, Y., Ouyang, H., Peng, G. & Li, K. (2012b). A revision of xinjiangchelyid turtles from the Late Jurassic of Sichuan Basin, China. Annales de Paléontologie, 98 (2), 73-114.

Tong, H., Dong, Z. & Wang, T. (2015a). A revision of Xinjiangchelys oshanensis (Ye, 1973), and new material from the Middle Jurassic of Lufeng, Yunnan province, China. Bulletin de la Société géologique de France, 186 (1), 43-49.

Tong, H., Li, L. & Ouyang, H. (2014). A revision of Sinaspideretes wimani Young & Chow, 1953 (Testudines: Cryptodira: Trionychoidae) from the Jurassic of the Sichuan Basin, China. Geological Magazine, 151 (4), 600-610.

Tong, H., Naksri, W., Buffetaut, E., Suteethorn, S., Suteethorn, V., Chantasit, P. & Claude, J. (2019). Kalasinemys, a new xinjiangchelyid turtle from the Late Jurassic of NE Thailand. Geological Magazine, 156 (10), 1645-1656.

Tong, H., Naksri, W., Buffetaut, E., Suteethorn, V., Suteethorn, S., Deesri, U., Sila, S., Chanthasit, P. & Claude, J. (2015b). A new primitive eucryptodiran turtle from the Upper Jurassic Phu Kradung Formation of the Khorat Plateau, NE Thailand. Geological Magazine, 152 (1), 166-175.

Wings, O., Rabi, M., Schneider, J.W., Schwermann, L., Sun, G., Zhou, C.-F. & Joyce, W.G. (2012). An enormous Jurassic turtle bone bed from the Turpan Basin of Xinjiang, China. Naturwissenschaften, 99, 925-935.

Xu, X., Zheng, X., Sullivan, C., Wang, X., Xing, L., Wang, Y., Zhang, X., O’Connor, J.K., Zhang, F. & Pan, Y., (2015). A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran theropod with preserved evidence of membranous wings. Nature, 521, 70-73.

Xu, X., Zhou, Z., Sullivan, C., Wang, Y. & Ren, D. (2016). An updated review of the Middle-Late Jurassic Yanliao Biota: Chronology, Taphonomy, Paleontology and Paleoecology. Acta Geologica Sinica, 90 (6), 2229-2243.

Xu, X., Zhou, Z., Wang, Y. & Wang, M. (2019). Study on Jehol Biota: Recent advances and future prospects. Science China: Earth Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430- 019-9509-3.

Ye, X.-K. (1986). A Jurassic turtle from Junggar, Xinjiang. Vertebrata PalAsiatica, 24, 171-181. Young, C.C. & Chow, M.C. (1953). New fossil reptiles from Szechuan China. Acta Scientica Sinica, 2 (3), 216-243.

Yu, Z., He, H., Li, G., Deng, C., Wang, H., Zhang, X., Yang, Q., Xia, X.-P., Zhou, Z. & Zhu, R. (2020). SIMS U-Pb geochronology for the Jurassic Yanliao Biota from Bawanggou section, Qinglong (northern Hebei Province, China). International Geology Review, 63 (3), 1-11.

Zheng, X., Bi, S., Wang, X. & Meng, J. (2013). A new arboreal haramiyid shows the diversity of crown mammals in the Jurassic period. Nature, 500, 199-202.

Zhou, Z. & Wang, Y. (2017). Vertebrate assemblages of the Jurassic Yanliao Biota and the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota: comparisons and implications. Palaeoworld, 26 (2), 241-252.

Downloads

Published

18-06-2021 — Updated on 18-06-2021

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2021): JANUARY - JUNE

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Science Technology and Engineering Journal (STEJ)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.