Roxochelys wanderleyi Price, 1953

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 : 65

Roxochelys wanderleyi Price, 1953

TYPE SPECIMEN: MCT 216-R, a partial carapace and partial plastron. Not lost, contrary to Candeiro et al. (2006: 927) (G.R. Oliveira, personal commun.).

TYPE LOCALITY: Araçatuba, Jubia (municipality of Mirandópolis, São Paulo State, Brazil ( Price, 1953; Candeiro et al., 2006).

HORIZON: Adamantina Fm., Turonian- Santonian ( Candeiro et al., 2006).

DIAGNOSIS: As for genus.

REFERRED MATERIAL: MCT 1722-R; DGM uncataloged ‘‘Mezzalira’’ shell (figured in Romano et al., 2009: figs. 2B, 3C; Mezzalira, 1959: 5, 6, locality 14).

PREVIOUS WORK: Mezzalira (1959, 1966, 1981, 1989), Broin (1991), Oliveira and Romano (2007). Oliveira and Romano (2007) correctly considered this species a nomen dubium, but with the addition of complete shells to the hypodigm, we feel that the species has risen to the level of diagnosable but incertae sedis.

DISCUSSION: The name Roxochelys wanderleyi Price, 1953 , was applied to DGM 216- R a partial carapace and partial plastron. We agree that a shell figured by Romano et al. (2009: figs. 2B, 3C), collected by the geologist S. Mezzalira (the ‘‘Mezzalira’’ shell), can be identified as Roxochelys wanderleyi (see below). Furthermore, after additional study of MCT 1722-R (LE 307) it is apparent that this specimen also should be referred to Roxochelys wanderleyi .

Broin (1991) suggests that Roxochelys wanderleyi be considered a junior synonym of R. harrisi on the basis of similar ornamentation. However, this suggestion has not been followed in the recent literature ( França and Langer, 2006; Oliveira and Romano, 2007; but see Candeiro et al., 2006). We concur with Oliveira and Romano (2007) that both ‘‘ Podocnemis ’’ harrisi Pacheco, 1913 , and ‘‘ Podocnemis ’’ brasiliensis Staesche, 1937 , should be considered nomina dubia.