Allopleuron

Name: Allopleuron.
Phonetic: Al-loe-plu-ron.
Named By: John Edward Gray in‭ ‬1831‭ ‬as Chelonia hofmanni,‭ ‬Georg Baur named it Allopleuron hofmanni in‭ ‬1888.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia, Testudines, Cryptodira, Dermochelyidae.
Species: A.‭ ‬hofmanni‭ (‬type‭)‬.‭ ‬Possibly also A.‭ ‬insularis,‭ ‬A.‭ ‬lipsiense and A.‭ ‬qazaqstanense,‭ ‬but these are not considered valid by all.
Diet: Uncertain/Omnivore‭?
Size: Around‭ ‬2‭ ‬to‭ ‬2.5‭ ‬meters long.
Known locations: Germany,‭ ‬Kazakstan,‭ ‬Netherlands and the USA,‭ ‬New Jersey.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous to Bartonian of the Eocene.
Fossil representation: Almost complete specimens including shells and skulls.

       Allopleuron was a large sea turtle that swam in the late‭ ‬Cretaceous seas and may have had a cosmopolitan distribution at least across the Northern Hemisphere.‭ ‬Several species have been named in the past but today some only consider the type species A.‭ ‬hofmanni as valid.‭ ‬With remains possibly being as late as the Eocene,‭ ‬it would seem that this genus of sea turtle managed to survive the KT extinction sixty-five million years ago that marked the end of many reptile genera not only including the dinosaurs and pterosaurs,‭ ‬but also other large marine reptiles like mosasaurs and plesiosaurs.

Further reading
- The fossil reptiles (Reptilia: Chelonii, Crocodylia) from the marine early Oligocene of the Weisselster Basin (Central Germany: Saxonia). - HStudia Geologica Salamanticensia 43(1):25-66. - Hans-Volker Karl - 2007.
- New materials of the giant sea turtle Allopleuron (Testudines: Chelonioidea) from the marine Late Cretaceous of Central Europe and the Palaeogene of Kazakhstan. - Stvdia Palaeocheloniologica IV, Stvdia Geologica Salmanticensia. n Especial 9: 153–173. - Hans-Volker Karl, Elke Gröning & Carsten Brauckmann - 2012.

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