Albertwoodemys, 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 : 34-35

Albertwoodemys , new genus

Albertemys nomina nuda Auffenberg, 1981.

TYPE SPECIES: Albertwoodemys testudinum , new species.

DISTRIBUTION: Oligocene of Egypt.

ETYMOLOGY: For Albert E. Wood, father of one of the authors, Roger C. Wood, and a founding member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, as well as a past president, honorary member, and recipient of the Romer-Simpson medal of that society.

DIAGNOSIS: A podocnemidid pleurodire known only from the shell with these unique features: single pair of scales on plastron between gular scales and abdominal scales (could be interpreted as absence of pectoral or humeral scale or fusion of the two); very small anal scales not meeting in midline accompanied by deep, C-shaped anal notch; scale sulci lying on raised ridges rather than incised on bone surface; large raised, swellings on lateral edges of posterior plastral lobe; entire shell more highly domed than any other podocnemidid; other distinguishing features: arcuate ischial contacts, with convex sides facing midline; ridge on visceral surface of posterior peripherals; large intergular scale separating small gular scales that do not reach entoplastron.

DISCUSSION: The specimen here named Albertwoodemys testudinum was described and named in an unpublished Ph.D. dissertation by R. Wood in 1971. Wood coined the name ‘‘Albertemys’’ for this specimen, but the dissertation and the name were never published by Wood. Auffenberg (1981), in his description of Olduvai fossil turtles, had access to Wood’s dissertation and compared his new taxon, Latisternon , to a number of pleurodires, including ‘‘ Albertemys Wood, 1970 ’’ (1981: 512, although the dissertation date is actually 1971). It is apparent in the bibliography of Auffenberg (1981: 522) ‘‘Unpubl. PhD Diss….’’ that the author was aware of the fact that the dissertation was not an actual publication. A species name is not mentioned but there are characters for ‘‘Albertemys’’ indicated in the comparison with Latisternon . As it lacks a type species and type specimen, the name ‘‘Albertemys’’ is a nomen nudum.