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NorntatesAMERICAN MUSEUM PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY CENTRAL PARK WEST AT 79TH STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10024 Number 3048, 13 pp., 6 figures, 1 table July 28, 1992 Dracochelys, a New Cryptodiran Turtle from the Early Cretaceous of China EUGENE S. GAFENEY' AND XIANGKUI YE2 ABSTRACT A turtle skull from the Early Cretaceous Tugulu internal nares, pterygoid forming a cleft-shaped series in the Wuerho district ofXinjiang province, opening for the palatine artery, and flattened skull People's Republic of China, is a new genus of eu- show a close similarity to Hangaiemys, usually cryptodiran turtle. Dracochelys bicuspis is unique placed in the Sinemydidae/Macrobaenidae. How- among cryptodires in possessing a very narrow ever, we place Dracochelys as Eucryptodira incer- maxillary triturating surface with paired cusps on tae sedis, recognizing that the "Macrobaenidae" the labial ridge at the premaxilla-maxilla suture. is presently diagnosed only by characters primitive The very large foramen palatinum posterius, large for Eucryptodira. INTRODUCTION In 1973, Ye figured and briefly mentioned ilar to Hangaiemys, described by Sukhanov an "amphichelydian skull" from the Early and Narmandakh (1974) from the Early Cre- Cretaceous Tugulu series in the Wuerho dis- taceous (Aptian-Albian) of Mongolia (Mon- trict of Xinjiang province, People's Republic golian People's Republic). Hangaiemys is of China. Further preparation and study of known from well-preserved skulls and shells, this specimen shows that it is a new genus of and, on the basis of the shell morphology, cryptodire. The purpose of this paper is to has been placed in the family Macrobaenidae describe and name this new taxon. (Sukhanov, 1964). Macrobaenidae has been The new genus, Dracochelys, is known from synonymized with the family Sinemydidae a single well-preserved skull that is most sim- by some authors (e.g., Ckhikvadze, 1987), ' Curator, American Museum of Natural History. 2 Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing. Copyright © American Museum of Natural History 1992 ISSN 0003-0082 / Price $1.90 2 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 3048 but current work (Brinkman, in progress) sug- Drs. D. Brinkman, L. Nessov, and D. Russell gests that the Sinemydidae can be defined for providing translations of many of the with synapomorphies while the Macrobaen- Russian and Chinese papers. idae or Macrobaenidae plus Sinemydidae The Institute for Paleontology and Paleo- cannot, at least as currently diagnosed (see anthropology, Beijing, allowed us access to discussion). Although the purpose ofthis pa- the specimen described here and greatly aid- per is not to determine the relationships of ed the studies of one of us (ESG) while in Dracochelys, it is certainly prudent to com- Beijing. We particularly thank Dr. Chang pare Dracochelys with possible near relatives. Mee-Mann for her encouragement and sup- We have chosen four taxa (table 1) for these port. comparisons, based on similarity to Dra- We are grateful to Ms. L. Meeker for the cochelys, purported relationships, and avail- high quality of the figures and for fine prep- ability of skull material. aration of the type specimen. Our knowledge ofHangaiemys and Macro- We also thank Drs. H. Hutchison, D. baena is based solely on the papers describing Brinkman, and P. Meylan for reading and and figuring them, Sukhanov and Narman- improving the manuscript. dakh (1974) and Tatarinov (1959), respec- tively. Information on Sinemys sp. is derived primarily from skulls (IVPP V9532-1 1 from ABBREVIATIONS Laolonghuoze, and IVPP V9538 from Otog Anatomical Qi, Inner Mongolia, of undescribed species ofthat genus; Brinkman, personal commun.). bo basioccipital The fourth skull, TMP 87.2.1, represents an bs basisphenoid undescribed genus from the Late Cretaceous epi epipterygoid ex exoccipital of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, prob- fr frontal ably similar to but not the same as "Clem- ju jugal mys" backmani Russell, 1934 (Hutchison, mx maxilla personal commun.). While our knowledge of na nasal Hangaiemys and Macrobaena is based only op opisthotic on the literature, one of us (ESG) has had the pa parietal opportunity to examine the Sinemys skulls pal palatine and TMP 87.2.1. pf prefrontal Some regions of the skull in Dracochelys pm premaxilla cannot yet be determined in the fossil taxa; Po postorbital pr prootic therefore, comparisons are also made with pt pterygoid chelydrids. Dracochelys is most similar to qj quadratojugal Chelydra among the Recent fauna, and skulls qu quadrate of that genus are widely available. so supraoccipital sq squamosal vo vomer ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Institutional We are particularly grateful to Drs. How- IVPP Institute of Paleontology and Paleoan- ard Hutchison and Don Brinkman, who made thropology, Beijing available many undescribed specimens, which PRC People's Republic of China they collected with some difficulty. Both TMP Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, workers have invested considerable time and Drumheller effort in studying this material, and we ap- preciate their unrestricted sharing of speci- mens and conclusions with us. The paper was SYSTEMATICS considerably improved by a meeting in Feb- ORDER TESTUDINES ruary 1992 of the Asian Study Section (ASS) of the World Paleochelonological Society GIGAORDER CASICHELYDIA (WPS) in Berkeley, CA. We are grateful to MEGAORDER CRYPTODIRA 1 992 GAFFNEY AND YE: DRACOCHELYS 3 PARVORDER EUCRYPTODIRA INCERTAE SEDIS Dracochelys bicuspis cf FAMILY "MACROBAENIDAE" TYPE SPECIMEN: Institute ofVertebrate Pa- leontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) Dracochelys, new genus V4075 (figured in Ye, 1973, p1. 1, figs. 3, 4, TYPE SPECIES: Dracochelys bicuspis, new as "amphichelydian skull"), collected 1964 genus and species. by IVPP expedition. KNoWN DISTRIBUTION: Wuerho district, LocALrry: Wuerho district, northwestern Xinjiang province, People's Republic ofChi- part of Dzungar (Junggar) Basin, north Xin- na, Early Cretaceous, Tugulu Series. jiang province, People's Republic of China ETYMOLOGY: Draco, dragon; chelys, turtle. (see Dong, 1973). DIAGNOSIS: Member of Eucryptodira, HoRIzON: Upper part (possibly equivalent known only from skull, with canalis caroticus to the Lianmuxin Fm.) of the Tugulo series internus only partially floored by bone and of lacustrine sediments, thought to be Early foramen caroticum basisphenoidale com- Cretaceous. Dracochelys and "Sinemys" pletely formed by basisphenoid and visible wuerhoensis both come from the Upper Tu- in ventral view as in Sinemys, but in contrast gulu series but from different horizons and to most eucryptodires in which canalis caroti- localities (Dong, 1973). cus internus is completely floored by bone DIsCussIoN: Dracochelys is clearly a cryp- and foramen caroticum basisphenoidale is todire: it has the otic trochlea synapomorphy formed at least in part by pterygoid; skull of that group (Gaffney and Meylan, 1988; most similar to those of Chelydra and Han- Gaffhey et al., 1991), and it is here interpreted gaiemys in shape but relatively flatter and as a eucryptodire. The critical synapomorphy wider, with fossa orbitalis and apertura nar- for eucryptodires is that the posterior portion ium externa opening dorsally to a much of the pterygoid encloses the internal carotid greater extent; frontal bone enters orbit in artery. In Dracochelys the bone forming the contrast to that ofchelydrids; degree of tem- floor of the canalis caroticus internus is very poral emargination similar to that in Han- thin, much as in plesiochelyids, and does not gaiemys and Chelydra; degree ofcheek emar- seem to extend for most of the length of the gination as in Chelydra; triturating surfaces groove containing the internal carotid. How- distinct from those of all chelydrids, Sine- ever, this is not definite, as the bone making mys, Hangaiemys, Macrobaena, and Macro- up the floor is broken and missing in many baenidae (sensu Hutchison and Archibald, places, so the floor could be more extensive 1986) in being very narrow with paired cusps than shown in the restoration (fig. 5). The at the premaxilla-maxilla suture; foramen limited amount of bone in the floor of the palatinum posterius relatively large in com- canalis could be interpreted as primitive parison with that of Chelydra but similar to within Eucryptodira, but nonetheless Dra- that ofHangaiemys; vomerine ridge extend- cochelys would be a eucryptodire. ing length of bone as in Hangaiemys but in Within the Eucryptodira the relationships contrast to Chelydra; processus trochlearis ofDracochelys are more uncertain. It is most oticum relatively small in contrast to that of similar to a series ofAsian and North Amer- chelydrids; incisura columellae auris narrow ican eucryptodires that have come to be re- and containing only stapes but not complete- ferred to the family Sinemydidae and/or ly closed by bone as in chelydrids; vertical Macrobaenidae. The Sinemydidae was cre- plate ofprocessus pterygoideus externus larg- ated by Ye in 1963 and Macrobaenidae by er than in any other turtle; pterygoid-basi- Sukhanov in 1964. The perturbations and occipital contact seen in chelydrids and most usage ofthese two names is beyond the scope cryptodires greatly reduced in Dracochelys by of this paper, and we will refer only to the posterolateral process of basisphenoid; deep most recent diagnosis by Ckhikvadze (1987). concavity on quadrate process of pterygoid Ckhikvadze proposed the most inclusive def- as in Hangaiemys but in contrast to that of inition, uniting the two families in Sinemydi- Sinemys,