''Azabbaremys'' is an extinct

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 ...

bothremydid Bothremydidae is an extinct family of side-necked turtles (Pleurodira) known from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. They are closely related to Podocnemididae, and are amongst the most widely distributed pleurodire groups, with their fossils having b ...

pleurodiran The Pleurodira are one of the two living suborders of turtles, the other being the Cryptodira. The division between these two suborders represents a very deep evolutionary divide between two very different types of turtles. The physical differenc ...

turtle that was discovered in the

Teberemt Formation The Teberemt Formation is a geological formation in Mali, West Africa. It dates to the middle to possibly the late Palaeocene epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a p ...

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

. It was described in 2001, based on a skull that had been recovered in an expedition in 1981. The genus consists solely of the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

''Azabbaremys moragjonesi''. The genus name is derived from ''Azabbar'', a monster in

Tamasheq Tamashek or Tamasheq is a variety of Tuareg, a Berber macro-language widely spoken by nomadic tribes across North and West Africa in Algeria, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Tamasheq is one of the three main varieties of Tuareg, the others bei ...

folk stories. The

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

is named for Morag Jones, a research student who participated in the discovery of the specimen and died in the expedition. ''Azabbaremys'' is most closely related to another Paleocene side-necked turtle, '' Acleistochelys''.

Description

The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

of ''Azabbaremys'' is a nearly complete skull, completely lacking the lower jaw. The skull has a median length of 145.5 mm from the

premaxilla The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth. In humans, they are fused with the maxilla. The "premaxilla" of therian mammals h ...

condyle A condyle (;Entry "condyle"
in

and a maximum width of 164.3 mm. The skull measures 67.1 mm in height from the condyle to the top of the skull roof. The triturating surface, the cutting or grinding surface of the jaws, is rugose, having been formed by a series of rough corrugations shaped like small teeth, unlike the smooth triturating surfaces seen in other bothremydids such as Nigeremys and

Taphrosphys ''Taphrosphys'' is an extinct genus of Bothremydidae, bothremydid pleurodiran turtle that was discovered Angola, Morocco and the United States.E. D. Cope. 1869. The fossil reptiles of New Jersey. American Naturalist 3:84-91 The genus consists of ...

Paleoenvironment

''Azabbaremys'' was discovered in the Teberemt Formation of Mali, which represents a shallow marine deposition within the

Trans-Saharan Seaway The Trans-Saharan seaway was a sea in the present-day Sahara in the Late Cretaceous period to the Early Eocene In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Eoce ...

. Sea levels were higher during the

Paleogene The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the fir ...

than they are today, and an inland sea had been fluctuating in coverage over the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

since the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

, at times submerging an estimated 2500–3000 km² of northwest

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

beneath 50 meters of water. The Trans-Saharan Seaway may have served as a dispersal route for marine fauna between the

Tethys Sea The Tethys Ocean ( ; ), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era. It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eurasia ...

and

South Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. Many fossils of

fishes A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits. Fish can be grouped into the more basal jawless fish and the more common jawed ...

and

crocodyliforms Crocodyliformes is a clade of crurotarsan archosaurs, the group often traditionally referred to as "crocodilians". They are the first members of Crocodylomorpha to possess many of the features that define later relatives. They are the only pseudo ...

are known from the Teberemt Formation, as are invertebrates including

nautiloids Nautiloids are a group of cephalopods (Mollusca) which originated in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living ''Nautilus'' and ''Allonautilus''. Fossil nautiloids are diverse and species rich, with over 2,500 recorded species. Th ...

( Cimomia reymenti),

echinoids Sea urchins or urchins () are echinoderms in the class (biology), class Echinoidea. About 950 species live on the seabed, inhabiting all oceans and depth zones from the intertidal zone to deep seas of . They typically have a globular body cove ...

( Linthia sudanensis), and

oysters Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of Seawater, salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in Marine (ocean), marine or Brackish water, brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly Calcification, calcified, a ...

( Ostrea multicostata).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q97683272 Bothremydidae Prehistoric turtle genera Paleocene turtles Fossils of Mali Paleocene life Fossil taxa described in 2001