''Baena'' (pronounced ''ba-en-na'') is an extinct genus of baenid

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 ...

s that inhabited North America during 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 ...

and early

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 ...

. The genus name is thought to originate from a

Native American language The Indigenous languages of the Americas are the languages that were used by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas before the arrival of non-Indigenous peoples. Over a thousand of these languages are still used today, while many more are now e ...

, possibly the

Arapaho The Arapaho ( ; , ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho bands formed t ...

word for turtle, ''be’enoo''. Fossils of ''Baena'' have been found in locations including

Kirtland Formation The Kirtland Formation (originally the Kirtland Shale) is a Sedimentary rock, sedimentary geological formation. Description The Kirtland Formation is the product of alluvial muds and overbank sand deposits from the many channels draining the ...

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

(''B.'' sp.) (Cretaceous) and

Ravenscrag Formation The Ravenscrag Formation is a stratigraphic unit of early Paleocene Geochronology, age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It was named for the settlement of Ravenscrag, Saskatchewan, and was first describ ...

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

(''B.'' sp.) (Cretaceous).

References

Baenidae Prehistoric turtle genera {{Paleo-turtle-stub Late Cretaceous turtles of North America Cenozoic turtles of North America Paleogene turtles Taxa named by Joseph Leidy Fossil taxa described in 1870