Name:
Toxochelys.
Phonetic: Toks-o-kel-iss.
Named By: Edward Drinker Cope - 1873.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Testudines,
Cryptodira, Panchelonioidea.
Species: T. bauri, T. browni, T.
latiremus, T. moorevillensis, T. weeksi.
Diet: Uncertain/Carnivore.
Size: Up to about 2 meters long.
Known locations: Angola. Canada, Manitoba -
Pierre Shale Formation, Vermilion River Formation. USA, Alabama
- Mooreville Chalk Formation, Arkansas- Marlbrook Marl
Formation, Delaware - Merchantville Formation, Kansas -
Marlbrook Marl Formation, Niobrara Formation, South Dakota -
Pierre Shale Formation, Tennessee - Ripley Formation.
Time period: Campanian to Maastrichtian of the
Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial remains of numerus
individuals.
Toxochelys
is a genus of sea turtle that lived during the late Cretaceous, and
is also one of the most common sea turtles that lived in the Western
Interior Sea Way, a shallow sea that once submerged the central
portion of the North American Continent. As a genus, Toxochelys
seems to be in-between modern sea turtles and other turtles in its
evolutionary development. This suggest that while having a common
ancestor, Toxochelys represents an independent
evolutionary off
shoot, though ultimately one that died out without any modern day
descendants.
At
up to two meters long, Toxochelys was big though
still substantially
smaller than some late Cretaceous sea turtles such as Archelon
and
Protostega
which were swimming in the same waters at the same
approximate time as Toxochelys. The Western
Interior Sea was a
dangerous place, and predators of Toxochelys
likely included
mosasaurs
such as Prognathodon
and Tylosaurus,
as well as large
sharks
such as Cretoxyrhina
that had specially adapted teeth that could
cut through any biological substance be it flesh, shell or even bone
with the upmost ease.
Further reading
- [On Toxochelys latiremis]. - Proceedings
of the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 25:10. - Edward Drinker Cope
- 1873.
- On the skeleton of Toxochelys latiremis. -
Published Field
Columbian Museum, Zoological Ser. (later Fieldiana: Zoology),
1(5):101-106, pls. 14 &15. - O. P. Hay -
1896.
- A revision of the species of the family of fossil turtles called
Toxochelyidae, with descriptions of two new species of Toxochelys
and
a new species of Porthochelys. - Bulletin of
the American Museum of
Natural History 21(10):177-185. - O. P. Hay - 1903.
-The vertebrate fauna of the Selma Formation of Alabama. Part IV.
- The turtles of the family Toxochelyidae. Fieldiana: Geology
Memoirs 3(4):145-277. - R. Zangerl - 1953.
- New material of Toxochelys latiremis Cope,
and a revision of the
genus Toxochelys (Testudines, Chelonoidea).
- Journal of
Vertebrate Paleontology, 8(2):181-187. - E. L. Nicholls
- 1988.
- Taxonomic comparison and stratigraphic distribution of Toxochelys
(Testudines: Cheloniidae) of South Dakota, by M. H.
Carrano. In, The Geology and Paleontology of the Late Cretaceous
Marine Deposits of the Dakotas. Geological Society of America,
Special Paper 427, - J. E. Martin & D. C.
Parris (eds.) - 2007.
- A juvenile Toxochelys latiremis (Testudines,
Cheloniidae)
from the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation of Kansas, USA. -
Neues Jahrbuch f�r Geologie und Pal�ontologie. Abhandlungen
249(3):371-380. - A. T. Matzke - 2008.
- Osteology of the skull of Toxochelys
(Testudines,
Chelonioidea). - Palaeontographica Abteilung A
288(4):93-150. - A. T. Matzke - 2009.