Latentemys, 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 : 51

Latentemys , new genus

TYPE SPECIES: Latentemys plowdeni , new species.

INCLUDED SPECIES: Latentemys plowdeni .

DIAGNOSIS: A podocnemidid of the Tribe Stereogenyini known only from the skull; uniquely possessing large, oval orbits, with widest dimension dorsally; medial edges of palatal cleft curved in contrast to Lemurchelys , Shweboemys , and Stereogenys ;

low ventral convexity on triturating surface in contrast to high in Bairdemys ; eustachian tube separated from rest of fenestra postotica as in Bairdemys and in contrast to Cordichelys ; antrum postoticum open in contrast to nearly closed as in Bairdemys ; frontal and prefrontal slightly curved in profile as in Brontochelys and in contrast to Shweboemys ; jugal-pterygoid contact present due to absence of ventral process of postorbital in septum orbitotemporale in contrast to Cordichelys ; basisphenoid relatively short in contrast to other Infratribe Bairdemydita ; large cavum pterygoidei prevents quadratepterygoid contact posteriorly in contrast to Cordichelys and Bairdemys .

DISTRIBUTION:? Egypt.

ETYMOLOGY: Latent, from Latin latens, - entis, ‘‘hidden,’’ in allusion to the indeterminant locality data; emys, Greek ‘‘freshwater tortoise.’’