''Elochelys'' ("swamp turtle") 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 turtle that was discovered in 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 ...

(

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 ...

) of Fuveau Basin,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

.Gaffney, E.S., Tong, H., Meylan, P.A., 2006. Evolution of the side-necked turtles: the families Bothremydidae, Euraxemydidae, and Araripemydidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 300, 1–700. The genus consists solely of type species ''E. perfecta'',Nopcsa, F., 1931. Sur des nouveaux restes de Tortues du Danien du Midi de la France. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 1, 223–236. though a second species (''E. covenarum'') was reassigned to the genus '' Iberoccitanemys''.

Discovery

''Elochelys'' was discovered in the Fuveau region of France, and is known from exclusively from a shell. The holotype was described by Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás in 1931. A second species was described by Laurent, Yong and Claude, 2002.Laurent, Y., Tong, H., Claude, J., 2002. New side-necked turtle (Pleurodira: Bothremydidae) from the Upper Maastrichtian of the Petites-Pyréneés (Haute-Garonne, France). Cretaceous Research 23, 465–471. but was subsequently reassigned to a new genus, ''Iberoccitanemys''.

References

Prehistoric turtle genera Late Cretaceous turtles Fossils of France Bothremydidae Late Cretaceous reptiles of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1931 {{paleo-turtle-stub