Stereogenys cromeri Andrews, 1901

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 : 57-58

Stereogenys cromeri Andrews, 1901

TYPE SPECIMEN: CGM 10027, apparently now lost (C. Walker, personal commun., BMNH), nearly complete skull and jaws, partially crushed dorsoventrally, surface badly pitted and eroded. Figured in Andrews (1901: fig. 4) and Andrews (1906: fig. 95; pl. 25, figs. 2, 3). Represented by BMNH R.3007, a cast.

TYPE LOCALITY: ‘‘North of Birket el- Qurun,’’ Andrews (1906: 296).

TYPE HORIZON: ‘‘Qasr el-Sagha beds (Middle Eocene),’’ Andrews (1906: 296); now regarded as Late Eocene ( Holroyd et al., 1996; Seiffert, 2006; see also Moustafa, 1974, for general discussion and map).

DIAGNOSIS: Genus is monotypic.

REFERRED SPECIMENS: DPC 4120 (figs. 77, 78), locality 83-L-37, from the Dir Abu Lifa Member, Qasr el-Sagha Fm. (see Holroyd et al., 1996: fig. 1 for stratigraphic position), field number 83-1118, well-preserved skull, undistorted and completely free of matrix, lacking left otic chamber, skull roofing elements, and premaxillae.

All of following specimens have ‘‘Qasr el-Sagha, Fayum’’ as locality data, and it is likely that at least some came from the ‘‘bone beds’’ ( Beadnell, 1901), as Beadnell explicitly noted the turtles in his report. These ‘‘bone beds’’ are now recognized as part of the Dir Abu Lifa Member ( Holroyd et al., 1996). CGM 10031, cast is BMNH R.8442, original presumed lost (C. Walker, personal commun., BMNH), partial skull crushed dorsoventrally; BMNH R.3190, a partial skull Andrews (1906: fig. 95), has most complete cheek of Stereogenys specimens, showing that there was not an extensive emargination; BMNH R.3189, laterally crushed skull lacking roofing elements, Andrews (1906: pl. 25, fig. 1), completely closed palate is an artifact of crushing, and sutures that are so convincingly shown are drawn in ink, a number of them incorrectly; BMNH R.3191 (figs. 79, 80), a braincase and partial palate with endocast, identified as Stereogenys on basis of extent of secondary palate, and basisphenoid contacting palatines and separating pterygoids; BMNH R.3906, consists of a poorly preserved partial skull and lower jaws, the lower jaws are very similar to the type lower jaws, CGM 10027, skull, howev- er, is from a much smaller individual and does not belong with the jaws, although the ventral surface is poorly preserved, the posterior margins of the secondary palate are present, and they are more posteriorly placed than in CGM 10027, so it may not even be Stereogenys .

A lower jaw, University of Michigan 161 (fig. 81), Wadi Hitan, Fayum, can possibly be attributed to this species, although it is not associated with a skull and has some differences from the Andrews figured jaw (1906: pl. 25, fig. 3).

PREVIOUS WORK: Andrews (1901, 1906), Wood (1970).

DUBIOUS TAXA Podocnemididae Incertae Sedis

These are taxa that are taxonomically valid and diagnosable, but lack enough characters to reasonably analyse within the Podocnemididae .