Allaeochelys

Allaeochelys
Temporal range: Eocene
Allaeochelys crassesculptata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Superfamily: Trionychoidea
Family: Carettochelyidae
Subfamily: Carettochelyinae
Genus: Allaeochelys
Species: A. carasecai
A. crassesculptata
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Allaeochelys.

Allaeochelys is an extinct genus of pig-nosed turtle.

Fossils of the species Allaeochelys crassesculpta have been found in the Messel Pit near Darmstadt, Germany in pairs fossilised in the coital position.

It is believed to be the only example in the fossil record of vertebrates mating.

Dr Walter Joyce of the University of Tübingen says that "We've demonstrated quite clearly that each pair is a male and a female, and not, for example, just two males that might have died in combat....People had long speculated they might have died while mating, but that's quite different from actually showing it."[1]

References

  1. Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News (20 June 2012 Last updated at 02:20). "Turtles fossilised in sex embrace". BBC News: Science and Environment. Retrieved 2010-06-20. Check date values in: |date= (help)
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, September 17, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.