''Chubutemys'' was an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of meiolaniform

turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...

. It lived during the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, around the

Albian The Albian is both an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch/s ...

Aptian The Aptian is an age (geology), age in the geologic timescale or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early or Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), S ...

border, within the Puesto La Paloma Member of the

Cerro Barcino Formation The Cerro Barcino Formation (also known as the Gorro Frigio Formation) is a geological Formation (geology), formation in South America whose strata span the Early Cretaceous to the earliest Late Cretaceous. The top age for the formation has been e ...

. It is known from most of the

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

and

carapace A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the unde ...

, and part of the

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

Description

A skeleton, including most of the

, is known for ''Chubutemys''. As the skull was found in the same quarry as the postcranial skeleton, it was decided to be likely to be from the same individual. The shell of the specimen is remarkably thin.

Classification

''Chubutemys'' is a turtle that is relatively easy to classify. Among related genera, Sterli ''et al.'' found '' Patagoniaemys'' to be the most unstable genus. The

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

below shows the relationships of ''Chubutemys'', and three possible placements of ''Patagoniaemys'':

Paleoecology

''Chubutemys'' is from the

. A locality of many turtles, nicknamed "Turtle Town", located within the Puesto La Paloma Member of the formation, contains fossils of ''Chubutemys''. The formation includes many layers of pyrloclastic-rich rocks, and the different layers are many different colours. The layer inside the Puesto La Paloma Member, which is coloured green, was dated to the

boundary.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16975724 Prehistoric turtles of South America Early Cretaceous turtles Early Cretaceous reptiles of South America Aptian life Fossils of Argentina Cerro Barcino Formation Fossil taxa described in 2007 Meiolaniformes Prehistoric turtle genera Cretaceous Argentina