Duerochelys arribasi Jiménez, 1975

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 : 68

Duerochelys arribasi Jiménez, 1975

TYPE SPECIMEN: Faculty of Sciences of the University of Salamanca, Spain (Sala de las tortugas de la Universidad de Salamanca, Jiménez Fuentes, 1988), FCUS 326, a plastron.

TYPE LOCALITY: 15 kms west of Salamanca, Spain.

HORIZON: Ludien (Eocene).

DIAGNOSIS: See Jiménez Fuentes (1975). We do not note any diagnostic characters.

DISCUSSION: This taxon is not recognized in Lapparent de Broin’s (2001) detailed compilation of European turtles, supporting our interpretation that the taxon is not diagnosable. The type consists of a plastron with a pair of intergular scales that divide the gulars and partially divide the humerals, a common variation in Neochelys arenarum ( Broin, 1977: fig. 12). We see no features allowing this specimen to be differentiated from Neochelys . The specimen may demonstrate the presence of Neochelys arenarum in the Spanish Eocene.