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Extinct genus of turtles
Ctenochelys
(meaning "comb tortoise") is an
extinct
genus
of marine turtle (
Cryptodira
,
Pancheloniidae
), which existed during the
Cretaceous
period, and lived in the shallow waters of the
Western Interior Seaway
.
[1]
Its fossils have been found in the
Ripley Formation
and
Mooreville Chalk
of central
Alabama
, United States.
[2]
It was first named by
C. H. Sternberg
in 1904,
[3]
and contains two species,
C. stenoporus
[4]
and
C. acris
.
[5]
Species
[
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]
Ctenochelys stenoporus
is the
type species
. It was originally thought to be a species of
Toxochelys
;
T. bauri
, until Sternberg declared it a separate genus.
[3]
The two genera are similar in
carapaces
.
[1]
Ctenochelys acris
was first named by Zangerl in 1953 and is now thought to be one of the earliest ancestors of modern
cheloniids
.
[6]
References
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]
External links
[
edit
]