Peiropemys, Gaffney & Meylan & Wood & Simons & De Almeida Campos, 2011

Gaffney, Eugene S., Meylan, Peter A., Wood, Roger C., Simons, Elwyn & De Almeida Campos, Diogenes, 2011, Evolution Of The Side-Necked Turtles: The Family Podocnemididae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (350), pp. 1-237 : 22

Peiropemys , new genus

TYPE SPECIES: Peiropemys mezzalirai , new genus and new species.

INCLUDED SPECIES: Peiropemys mezzalirai .

DISTRIBUTION: Late Cretaceous, Brazil.

ETYMOLOGY: Peiropos, in allusion to the locality, Peirópolis; emys, Greek for ‘‘freshwater tortoise.’’

DIAGNOSIS: A podocnemidid known only from the skull; condylus occipitalis formed only by exoccipitals uniquely among Podocnemididae (except for some Peltocephalus ); skull relatively high and narrow in contrast to Bauruemys ; orbits facing dorsolaterally; interorbital groove as found in Podocnemis absent; temporal emargination slight, in contrast to Bauruemys but greater than in Peltocephalus ; postorbital large in contrast to Podocnemis ; parietal-quadratojugal contact long; cheek emargination reaches above level of orbit; medial expansion of triturating surface, median maxillary ridge, absent, wide concavity on the midline, formed by the premaxillae and anterior maxilla present; accessory ridge on triturating surface absent; vomer present; vomer-maxilla contact wide; fossa precolumellaris deep as in Bauruemys ; foramen jugulare posterius closed; interparietal scale equilateral triangle in contrast to parallel sided in Pricemys ; cavum pterygoidei with small anterior opening for foramen cavernosum; horizontal occipital shelf present as in Podocnemis .