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University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman; H. H. Lane, Edward H. Taylor



Volume 1, No. 17, pp. 281-284

August 16, 1948

 

 

University of Kansas

Lawrence, Kansas

 

 

PRINTED BY

FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER

TOPEKA, KANSAS

1948







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In the vertebrate paleontological collection at the University of
Kansas Museum of Natural History there are many fragments of
turtles that have been collected, generally in connection with the
excavation or recovery of other fossils. The generic identification
of this material is possible in many instances, and such identifications
give new and important geological and distributional records
for genera in existence today.

All catalogue numbers refer to the vertebrate paleontological collection
in the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History.

Kinosternon sp. No. 7729 consists of fragments of marginals,
costals, and plastronal elements collected from Edson Quarry, Sherman
County, Kansas. The age is middle Pliocene (Hemphillian).
No. 7679, consisting of a nuchal, and fragments of marginals, costals,
and neurals is from Nye Sink, XI Ranch, Meade County, Kansas,
and is of Pleistocene age.

Any fossil record of Kinosternon is a welcome find, and these two
specimens give new data both as to age and distribution. However,
it should be emphasized that these identifications are based on fragments,
and are tentative.

Pseudemys sp. No. 5613, Sherman County; 6784, Seward
County; and 4728, Meade County, are three of many fragments,
mainly elements of the nuchal plate and plastron, that were collected
from Edson Quarry, Sherman County, Kansas, and from middle and
late Pliocene beds in Seward and Meade counties, Kansas, respectively.
The species represented cannot be differentiated from species
of Pseudemys living today. Species of Pseudemys are common also
in most of the Pleistocene deposits of western Kansas.

Testudo sp. In general, two recognizable lines of the genus
Testudo existed in western Kansas during early Pliocene to mid-Pleistocene
time—a line of large testudinates with a carapace three
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to four feet long, and one line of smaller tortoises with a rugose
carapace approximately six to nine inches in diameter. Hibbard's
Testudo riggsi (Hibbard, 1944) is the best known of these smaller
turtles.

Gopherus sp. No. 5935 is from the Pleistocene of Harper County,
Kansas, and No. 7677 is from the early Pleistocene of Beaver
County, Oklahoma. Each is composed of costals and neurals which
may be referred to this genus. Their size indicates an animal considerably
larger than any on record, and probably these specimens
represent a new species.

Chelydra sp. No. 6821 is the anterior part of a plastron from
the Edson Quarry, Sherman County, Kansas. The age is middle
Pliocene. This fragment has been listed three times in print, once
merely as Chelonia (having reference to the order) (Adams and
Martin, 1931), and twice by Hibbard (1934 and 1939) as Chelonia
sp. Hibbard's listing was obviously a lapsus calami for Chelydra
since he placed the genus in the family Chelydridae.

No. 6479 is part of a costal and marginals from Meade County,
Kansas. This specimen was associated with Aenocyon dirus, and
is Pleistocene in age.

Amyda sp. No. 6800 is part of a costal collected in Seward
County, Kansas. It is possibly of early Pleistocene age. No. 7568
is part of a carapace from Meade County, Kansas, probably of the
same age.

Transmitted, March 8, 1948.

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