ArticleNature2015
A Middle Triassic stem-turtle and the evolution of the turtle body plan.
Article in Nature, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 159 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring the diversity and community structure of the Testudines fecal mycobiome.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Evolution of the reptile spine reveals independent trajectories to axial skeletal complexity in amniotes.Nature communications · 2026Article
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- Convergent Evolution of Two Dopamine Receptor Genes: Repeated Evolution of Exon 6 Skipping in Drd2, and Repeated Deletion of Exon 6 in Drd3.Journal of molecular evolution · 2025Article
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- 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
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- Cranial ecomorphology of turtles and neck retraction as a possible trigger of ecological diversification.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
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- Successive climate crises in the deep past drove the early evolution and radiation of reptiles.Science advances · 2022Article
- First evidence ofSwiss journal of palaeontology · 2022Article
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- Global Analysis of Transcriptome and Translatome Revealed That Coordinated WNT and FGF Regulate the Carapacial Ridge Development of Chinese Soft-Shell Turtle.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Palaeontological evidence reveals convergent evolution of intervertebral joint types in amniotes.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Were the synapsids primitively endotherms? A palaeohistological approach using phylogenetic eigenvector maps.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- A tiny new Middle Triassic stem-lepidosauromorph from Germany: implications for the early evolution of lepidosauromorphs and the Vellberg fauna.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Can We Reliably Calibrate Deep Nodes in the Tetrapod Tree? Case Studies in Deep Tetrapod Divergences.Frontiers in genetics · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The origin and early evolution of turtles have long been major contentious issues in vertebrate zoology. This is due to conflicting character evidence from molecules and morphology and a lack of transitional fossils from the critical time interval. The ∼220-million-year-old stem-turtle Odontochelys from China has a partly formed shell and many turtle-like features in its postcranial skeleton. Unlike the 214-million-year-old Proganochelys from Germany and Thailand, it retains marginal teeth and lacks a carapace. Odontochelys is separated by a large temporal gap from the ∼260-million-year-old Eunotosaurus from South Africa, which has been hypothesized as the earliest stem-turtle. Here we report a new reptile, Pappochelys, that is structurally and chronologically intermediate between Eunotosaurus and Odontochelys and dates from the Middle Triassic period (∼240 million years ago). The three taxa share anteroposteriorly broad trunk ribs that are T-shaped in cross-section and bear sculpturing, elongate dorsal vertebrae, and modified limb girdles. Pappochelys closely resembles Odontochelys in various features of the limb girdles. Unlike Odontochelys, it has a cuirass of robust paired gastralia in place of a plastron. Pappochelys provides new evidence that the plastron partly formed through serial fusion of gastralia. Its skull has small upper and ventrally open lower temporal fenestrae, supporting the hypothesis of diapsid affinities of turtles.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.