''Inaechelys'' is a potentially dubious

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

Maria Farinha Formation The Maria Farinha Formation is a geological Formation (geology), formation of the Parnaíba Basin in Pernambuco State, Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil whose strata date back to the Danian stage of the Paleocene, or Tiupampan in the South American ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. The genus consists solely of

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 ...

''I. pernambucensis''.A. R. de Araujo Carvalho, A. M. Ghilardi, and A. M. Franca Barreto. 2016 "A new side-neck turtle (Pelomedusoides: Bothremydidae) from the Early Paleocene (Danian) Maria Farinha Formation, Paraíba Basin, Brazil." Zootaxa 4126(4):491-513

Discovery

''Inaechelys'' was discovered in the Poty Cement Quarry, in

Paulista Paulista is a municipality in Pernambuco, Brazil, with a population of 334,376 as of 2020. It has the highest Human Development Index (HDI) of the Recife metropolitan area. It is the birthplace of footballer Rivaldo and is also famous for its be ...

, Brazil in 2005, by a team from the

Federal University of Pernambuco Federal University of Pernambuco (, UFPE) is a public university in Recife, Brazil, established in 1946. UFPE has 70 undergraduate courses and 175 postgraduate courses. , UFPE had 35,000 students and 2,000 professors. The university has three c ...

Description

The holotype consists of a carapace, which is fragmented but almost complete. The mesoplastron is not preserved, though its outline is still visible. The anal notch is small, semicircular and wider than it is deep.

Taxonomy

Pedro Romano placed the species in the genus '' Rosasia'' in 2016.Romano, Pedro S.R., 2016, "The tale of the headless turtle", ''Zootaxa'' 4200(2): 327-330

References

Bothremydidae Prehistoric turtle genera Paleocene turtles Danian life Tiupampan Paleogene reptiles of South America Paleogene Brazil Fossils of Brazil Fossil taxa described in 2016 Monotypic turtle genera {{paleo-turtle-stub