ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2004
Palaeoecology of triassic stem turtles sheds new light on turtle origins.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers.
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54 citing papers in PubMed.
- Highly aquatic marine stem archosaur with soft tissue preservation.Science advances · 2026Article
- Article
- Neuroanatomy ofSwiss journal of palaeontology · 2025Article
- PG-18: turtles reach adult shell shapes at about 65% maximum carapace length.Swiss journal of palaeontology · 2025Article
- Shell Constraints on Evolutionary Body Size-Limb Size Allometry Can Explain Morphological Conservatism in the Turtle Body Plan.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Shell biomechanics suggests an aquatic palaeoecology at the dawn of turtle evolution.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Turtle body size evolution is determined by lineage-specific specializations rather than global trends.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Cranial and mandibular anatomy ofSwiss journal of palaeontology · 2023Article
- Cranial ecomorphology of turtles and neck retraction as a possible trigger of ecological diversification.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Characterization of the In Vitro Cultured Ovarian Cells in the Asian Yellow Pond Turtle (Biology · 2022Article
- Mediterranean Spur-Thighed Tortoises (Biology · 2022Article
- First evidence ofSwiss journal of palaeontology · 2022Article
- A new model of forelimb ecomorphology for predicting the ancient habitats of fossil turtles.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- An early bothremydid from the Arlington Archosaur Site of Texas.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Evolutionary history of mental glands in turtles reveals a single origin in an aquatic ancestor and recurrent losses independent of macrohabitat.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Article
- The ecomorphology of the shell of extant turtles and its applications for fossil turtles.PeerJ · 2020Article
- Functional Morphology and Morphological Diversification of Hind Limb Cross-Sectional Traits in Mustelid Mammals.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2020Article
- Morphological characterization and phylogenetic relationships of Indochinese box turtles-TheEcology and evolution · 2019Article
- Comparative analysis of the shape and size of the middle ear cavity of turtles reveals no correlation with habitat ecology.Journal of anatomy · 2019Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Competing hypotheses of early turtle evolution contrast sharply in implying very different ecological settings-aquatic versus terrestrial-for the origin of turtles. We investigate the palaeoecology of extinct turtles by first demonstrating that the forelimbs of extant turtles faithfully reflect habitat preferences, with short-handed turtles being terrestrial and long-handed turtles being aquatic. We apply this metric to the two successive outgroups to all living turtles with forelimbs preserved, Proganochelys quenstedti and Palaeochersis talampayensis, to discover that these earliest turtle outgroups were decidedly terrestrial. We then plot the observed distribution of aquatic versus terrestrial habits among living turtles onto their hypothesized phylogenies. Both lines of evidence indicate that although the common ancestor of all living turtles was aquatic, the earliest turtles clearly lived in a terrestrial environment. Additional anatomical and sedimentological evidence favours these conclusions. The freshwater aquatic habitat preference so characteristic of living turtles cannot, consequently, be taken as positive evidence for an aquatic origin of turtles, but must rather be considered a convergence relative to other aquatic amniotes, including the marine sauropterygians to which turtles have sometimes been allied.
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