A Ptychogastrine (Testudines, Geoemydidae) From the Early Miocene of Panama and a Review of Miocene Testudinoids From Central America
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.qvhz1455Keywords:
Ptychogastrini, Rhinoclemmydinae, Geoemydidae, Testudinoidea, Miocene, Central AmericaAbstract
Forachelys woodi gen. et sp. nov. is described from lower Miocene (Arikareean NALMA) exposures of the upper Las Cascadas Formation (~21 Ma) in the Panama Canal Basin. It represents the latest occurrence of ptychogastrine geoemydids in North America, a group known primarily from the early Eocene to late Miocene of Europe. Forachelys woodi shares features with taxa such as Geiselemys ptychogastroides (middle Eocene, Germany) and some species of the Ptychogaster/Temnoclemmys group (late Eocene to late Miocene, Europe). The epiplastral morphology is furthermore comparable to Bridgeremys pusilla (middle Eocene of Wyoming and Utah), a taxon previously interpreted as a rhinoclemmydine ancestor. Within the Las Cascadas Formation, F. woodi co-occurred with an undescribed species of rhinoclemmydine geoemydid that represents the oldest record of Rhinoclemmys (sensu lato). The Miocene fossil record of testudinoids in Central America is reviewed and reexamined. Testudinids are diverse in the Miocene of Panama and Honduras, represented by aff. Stylemys, Caudochelys (2–3 large to giant species), and an undescribed genus and species that resembles ‘Testudo’ costarricensis. Rhinoclemmydines persisted in Panama almost continuously from the early to late Miocene, with records from the Las Cascadas (~21 Ma), upper Culebra (~20–19 Ma), Cucaracha (~19 Ma), and lower Gatun (~12–11 Ma) formations. At least two concurrent rhinoclemmydines are present in the Cucaracha Formation of Panama, and two possibly concurrent taxa in the Gracias Formation (9–6.6 Ma) of Honduras.
References
Adrian, B., H. F. Smith, J. H. Hutchison, and K. E. B. Townsend. 2021. Geometric morphometrics and anatomical network analyses reveal ecospace partitioning among geoemydid turtles from the Uinta Formation, Utah. The Anatomical Record:1-35. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.24792
Auffenberg, W. 1963. Fossil testudine turtles of Florida. Genera Geochelone and Floridemys. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum 7(2):53- 97. https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.fhcq4939
Auffenberg, W. 1971. A new fossil tortoise, with remarks on the origin of South American Testudines. Copeia, 1971:106-117. https://doi.org/10.2307/1441604
Bachmeyer, F., and H. Schaffer. 1959. Ein bemerkenswerter Schildkrötenfund (Ptychogaster grundensis nov. spec.) aus dem Untertorton von Grund, Niederösterreich. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 63:78-89.
Batsch, A. J. G. C. 1788. Versuch einer Anleitung, zur Kenntniss und Geschichte der Thiere und Mineralien. Akademische Buchhandlung, Jena, 528 p.
Beard, K. C. 2008. The oldest North American primate and mammalian biogeography during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. PNAS 105(10):3815-3818. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0710180105
Bloch, J. I., E. D. Woodruff, A. R. Wood, A. F. Rincon, A. R. Harrington, G. S. Morgan, D. A. Foster, C. Montes, C. A. Jaramillo, N. A. Jud, D. S. Jones, and B. J. MacFadden. 2016. First North American fossil monkey and early Miocene tropical biotic interchange. Nature 533:243-246. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17415
Bourque, J. R. 2012. A fossil mud turtle (Testudines, Kinosternidae) from the early middle Miocene (early Barstovian) of New Mexico. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 32:836-853. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2012.670179
Bourque, J. R. 2016. Side-necked turtles (Testudines, Pleurodira) from the ancient Gulf Coastal Plain of Florida during middle Cenozoic megathermals. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 15(1): 23-35. https://doi.org/10.2744/CCB-1159.1
Bourque, J. R. 2016 b. New mud turtles (Kinosternidae, Kinosternon) from the middle-late Miocene of the United States. Journal of Paleontology. https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2015.63
Bourque, J. R. 2021. A new geoemydid (Testudines, aff. Rhinoclemmydinae) from the upper Eocene Chadron Formation (White River Group) of northwestern Nebraska. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 58(5):86-101. https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.nlkv7912
Bourque, J., A. F. Rincon Burbano, A. Wood, J. Bloch, and B. MacFadden. 2013. New turtles (Reptilia, Testudines) from the Las Cascadas Formation, Panama Canal Basin, suggest low diversity in the early Miocene (Arikareean) neotropics. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (Supplement, Program and Abstracts) 33:91.
Buchs, D. M., D. Irving, H. Coombs, R. Miranda, J. Wang, M. Coronado, R. Arrocha, M. Lacerda, C. Goff, E. Almengor, E. Portugal, P. Franceschi, E. Chichaco, and S. D. Redwood. 2019. Volcanic contribution to emergence of Central Panama in the Early Miocene. Scientific Reports 9(1417):1-16. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-37790-2
Cadena, E. R., J. R. Bourque, A. F. Rincon, J. I. Bloch, C. M. Jaramillo, and B. J. MacFadden. 2012. New turtles (Chelonia) from the late Eocene through late Miocene of the Panama Canal Basin. Journal of Paleontology 86(3):539-557. https://doi.org/10.1666/11-106.1
Carbot-Chanona, G., E. Jiménez-Hidalgo, J. A. Díaz-Cruz, G. Rivera-Velázquez, and V. H. Reynoso. 2022. A new large tortoise from the early Oligocene (Arikareean NALMA) of Oaxaca, southern Mexico and its phylogenetic position within Pan-Testudinidae. Historical Biology. https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2022.2114352
Collins, L. S., A. G. Coates, W. A. Berggren, M-P. Aubry, J. Zhang. 1996. The late Miocene Panama isthmian strait. Geology, 24:687-690. Coto, A. R. and R. A. M. Acuña. 1986. Filogeniade Geochelone costarricensis y la familia Testudinidae (Reptilia: Testudines) en el continente Americano. Revista de Biologia Tropical 34:199-208. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613%281996%29024%3C0687%3ATLMPIS%3E2.3.CO%3B2%0A
De Stefano, G. 1903. Ptychogaster miocenici della Francia conservati nel Museo di Storia naturale di Parigi. Palaeontographica Italica 9:61-94.
Denk, T., F. Grímsson, R. Zetter, and L. A. Símonarson. 2011. The biogeographic history of Iceland-The North Atlantic Land Bridge revisited. Pp. 647-668 in T. Denk, F. Grímsson, R. Zetter, and L. A. Símonarson, eds. Late Cainozoic Floras of Iceland. Topics in Geobiology, Vol. 35. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0372-8_12
Denk, T., F. Grímsson, and R. Zetter. 2012. Fagaceae from the early Oligocene of Central Europe: Persisting new world and emerging old world biogeographic links. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 169:7-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2011.09.010
Ellis, D. and M. S. Stoker. 2014. The Faroe- Shetland Basin: a regional perspective from the Paleocene to present day and its relationship to the openeing of the North Atlantic Ocean. Pp. 11-31 in S. J. C. Cannon and D. Ellis, eds. Hydrocarbon Exploration to Exploitation West to Shetlands. Geological Society, London, Special Publication 397. https://doi.org/10.1144/SP397.1
Ernst, C. H., and R. W. Barbour. 1989. Turtles of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C., 313 p.
Garbin, R. C., M. Böhme, and W. G. Joyce. 2019. A new testudinoid turtle from the middle to late Eocene of Vietnam. PeerJ 7:e6280. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6280
Hably, L., Z. Kvaček, and S. R. Manchester. 2000. Shared taxa of land plants in the Oligocene of Europe and North America in context of Holarctic phytogeography. Acta Universitatis Carolinae-Geologica 44(1):59-74.
Hastings, A. K., J. I. Bloch, C. A. Jaramillo, A. F. Rincon, and B. J. MacFadden. 2013. Systematics and biogeography of crocodylians from the Miocene of Panama. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33(2):239-263. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2012.713814
Head, J. J., A. F. Rincon, C. Suarez, C. Montes, and C. Jaramillo. 2012. Fossil evidence for earliest Neogene American faunal interchange: Boa (Serpentes, Boinae) from the early Miocene of Panama. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32(6):1328-1334. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2012.694387
Hervet, S. 2004. A new genus of 'Ptychogasteridae' (Chelonii, Testudinoidea) from the Geiseltal (Lutetian of Germany). Comptes Rendus Palevol 3:125-132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crpv.2004.01.001
Hervet, S. 2006. The oldest European ptychogasterid turtle (Testudinoidea) from the lowermost Eocene Amber Locality of Le Quesno (France, Ypresian. MP7). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26(4):839-848. https://doi.org/10.1671/0272-4634%282006%2926%5B839%3ATOEPTT%5D2.0.CO%3B2
Hummel, K. 1935. Schildkröten aus der mitteleozänen Braunkohle des Geiseltales. NovaActa Leopoldina 2:457-483.
Hutchison, J. H. 1996. Testudines. Pp. 337-338 in D. R. Prothero and R. J. Emry, eds. The Terrestrial Eocene-Oligocene Transition in North America. Cambridge University Press, New York. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511665431.017
Hutchison, J. H. 2006. Bridgeremys (Geoemydidae, Testudines), a new genus from the middle Eocene of North America. Pp. 63-83 in I. G. Danilov and J. F. Parham, eds. Fossil Turtle Research Volume 1, Russian Journal of Herpetology 13 (Suppl.). St. Petersburg, Russia.
Jaramillo, C. 2018. Evolution of the Isthmus of Panama: Biological, paleoceanographic and paleoclimatological implications. Pp. 323- 338 in C. Hoorn, A. Perrigo, and A. Antonelli, eds. Mountains, Climate and Biodiversity, First Edition. John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., New Jersey.
Jiang, D., S. Klaus, Y.-P. Zhang, D. M. Hillis, and J.T. Li. 2019. Asymmetric biotic interchange across the Bering land bridge between Eurasia and North America. National Science Review 6:739-745. https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwz035
Jiang, Y., M. Gao, Y. Meng, J. Wen, X.-J. Ge, and Z.-L. Nie. 2019. The importance of the North Atlantic land bridges and eastern Asia in the post-Boreotropical biogeography of the Northern Hemisphere as revealed from the poison ivy genus (Toxicodendron, Anacardiaceae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 139:106561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2019.106561
Jiménez-Hidalgo, E., K. T. Smith, R. Guerrero-Arenas, and J. Alvarado-Ortega. 2015. The first Late Eocene continental faunal assemblage from tropical North America. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 57:39-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2014.12.001
Jiménez-Hidalgo, E., E. B. Lander, I. Israde-Alcántara, N. W. Rodríguez-Caballero, R. Guerrero-Arenas. 2021. Earliest Arikareean (later early Oligocene) Iniyoo local fauna from Chilapa Formation of Santiago Yolomécatl area in northwestern Oaxaca, southern Mexico. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 109:1-18. 103307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2021.103307
Kvaček, Z., S. R. Manchester, and H. E. Schorn. 2000. Cones, seeds, and foliage of Tetraclinis salicornioides (Cupressaceae) from the Oligocene and Miocene of Western North America: A geographic extension of the European Tertiary species. International Journal of Plant Sciences 161(2):331-344. https://doi.org/10.1086/314245
Kirby, M. X., D. S. Jones, and B. J. MacFadden. 2008. Lower Miocene stratigraphy along the Panama Canal and its bearing on the Central American peninsula. PLoS ONE 3(7):e2791. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002791
Laurito M., C., A. L. Valerio Z., L. D. Gómez P., J. I. Mead, E. A. Pérez G., and L. G. Pérez R. 2005. A Trionychidae (Reptilia: Testudines, Cryptodira) from the Pliocene of Costa Rica, southern Central America. Revisita Geológica de América Central 32:7-11. https://doi.org/10.15517/rgac.v0i32.4241
Laurito M., C., and A. L. Valerio Z. 2010. Los Caballos Fósiles de la Formación Curré, Cantón de Coto Brus, Costa Rica. Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, San José, 131 pp.
Linnaeus, C. 1766. Systema Naturae, 12th ed.
Laurentius Salvius, Holmia, 532 pp.
MacFadden, B. J., J. I. Bloch, H. Evans, D. A. Foster, G. S. Morgan, A. Rincon, and A. R. Wood. 2014. Temporal calibration and biochronology of the Centenario Fauna, early Miocene of Panama. The Journal of Geology 122:113-115. https://doi.org/10.1086/675244
MacFadden, B. J., D. S. Jones, N. A. Jud, J. W. Moreno-Bernal, G. S. Morgan, R. W. Portell, V. J. Perez, and A. R. Wood. 2017. Integrated chronology, flora and faunas, and paleoecology of the Alajuela Formation, late Miocene of Panama. PLoS ONE 12(1): e0170300. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0170300
McKenna, M. C. 1975. Fossil mammals and early Eocene North Atlantic land continuity. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 62(2):335- 353. https://doi.org/10.2307/2395200
Mlynarski, M. 1977. Bemerkungen über die Schildkröten (Testudinoides) des Geiseltales. Eozäne Wirbeltiere des Geiseltales, Wissenschaftliche Beiträge Martin-Luther-Universität 2:99-105.
Pomel. A. 1847. Note sur las Mammifères et les Reptiles fossiles des terrains Éocènes de Paris, inferiéurs au dépôt gypseux. Archives des Sciences (Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève) 4:326-330.
Qui, Z.-x. 2003. Dispersals of Neogene carnivorans between Asia and North America. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 279:18-31. https://doi.org/10.1206/0003-0090(2003)279<0018:C>2.0.CO;2
Rincon, A. F., J. I. Bloch, C. Suarez, B. J. MacFadden, and C. A. Jaramillo. 2012. New floridatragulines (Mammalia, Camelidae) from the early Miocene Las Cascadas Formation, Panama. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32:456-475. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2012.635736
Rincon, A. F., J. I. Bloch, B. J. MacFadden, and C. A. Jaramillo. 2013. First Central American record of Anthracotheriidae (Mammalia, Bothriodontinae) from the early Miocene of Panama. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33(2):421-433. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2013.722573
Rincon, A. F., J. I. Bloch, B. J. MacFadden, and C. A. Jaramillo. 2015. New early Miocene protoceratids (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from Panama. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 35(5):1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2015.970688
Schäfer, D. 2012. Die schildkröten der gattung Ptychogaster Pomel, 1847 (Reptilia, Testudines). Dissertation. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. 387 p.
Segura Paguaga, A. 1944. Estudio de la primera especie nueve de tortuga fosil de Costa Rica con alguras generalidades sobre el orden testudines. La Esquela de Farmacia Costa Rica, 7 (73- 74):9-29; (75-76):16-25; (77-78):13-24.
Smith, T., K. D. Rose, and P. D. Gingerich. 2006. Rapid Asia-Europe-North America geographic dispersal of earliest Eocene primate Teilhardina during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. PNAS 103(30):11223- 112227. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0511296103
Swofford, D. L. 2003. PAUP* Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (*and Other Methods) 4.0a (build 169).
Tedford, R. H., L. B. Albright III, A. D. Barnosky, I. Ferrusquia-Villafranca, R. M. Hunt Jr., J. E. Storer, C. C. Swisher III, M. R. Voorhies, S. D. Webb, and D. P. Whistler. 2004. Mammalian biochronology of the Arikareean through Hemphillian interval (late Oligocene through early Pliocene epochs). Pp. 169-231 in M. O. Woodburne, ed. Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Biostratigraphy and Geochronology. Columbia University Press, New York. https://doi.org/10.7312/wood13040-008
Theobald, W. 1868. Catalogue of the reptiles of British Burma, embracing the provinces of Pegu, Martaban and Tenasserim, with descriptions of new or little known species. Journal of the Linnean Society of London 10:4-68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1868.tb02007.x
Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (Rhodin, A. G. J., J. B. Iverson, R. Bour, U. Fritz, A. Georges, H. B. Schaffer, and P. P. van Dijk). 2021. Turtles of the World: Annotated Checklist and Atlas of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status (9th ed.). Chelonian Research Monographs, 8:1-472.
Webb, S. D., and S. C. Perrigo. 1984. Late Cenozoic vertebrates from Honduras and El Salvador. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 4:237-254. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.1984.10012006
Weems, R. E., and J. L. Knight. 2013. A new species of Bairdemys (Pelomedusoides: Podocnemididae) from the Oligocene (early Chattian) Chandler Bridge Formation of South Carolina, USA, and its paleobiogeographic implications for the genus. P p. 289-303 in D. B. Brinkman, P. A. Holroyd, and J. D. Gardner, eds. Morphology and Evolution of Turtles. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series, Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4309-0_18
Zimmermann-Rollius, S. 1966. Beiträge zur Schildkrötenfauna der eozänen Braunkohle des Geiseltales. Hercynia N. F. 4:83-104.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.