Redescription of the soft-shell turtle .i.Rafetus bohemicus./i. (Testudines, Trionychidae) from the Early Miocene of Czechia

0573954 - GLÚ 2024 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Chroust, Milan - Mazuch, M. - Ivanov, M. - Alba, D. M. - Luján, À. H.
Redescription of the soft-shell turtle Rafetus bohemicus (Testudines, Trionychidae) from the Early Miocene of Czechia.
PeerJ. Roč. 11, July 27 2023 (2023), č. článku e15658. ISSN 2167-8359. E-ISSN 2167-8359
Institutional support: RVO:67985831
Keywords : Trionyx * Rafetus * Bohemia * Most Basin * Břešťany * Burdigalian * Trionychinae * Czech Republic
OECD category: Paleontology
Impact factor: 2.7, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://peerj.com/articles/15658/

The taxonomy of the soft-shell turtle Rafetus bohemicus (Liebus, 1930), family Trionychidae, subfamily Trionychinae, is revised based on new and previously mentioned material (including the type material) from the Early Miocene (Burdigalian, MN 3) sites of the Most Basin, Czechia. Given that the diagnosis was so far based only on plastral elements, here we focused on the cranial material and combined our study with previously published data on postcranial elements. 3D models of the skulls derived from CT scans allow us to provide the first complete skull description of R. bohemicus, including several new cranial diagnostic characters of the species. Our results not only enable the distinction of the trionychid genera Trionyx and Rafetus, both recorded from Central Europe during the Early Miocene, but further allow us to provide an emended diagnosis for R. bohemicus. We confirm the conclusions of a previous study according to which Trionyx pontanus, T. preschenensis, T. aspidiformis, and T. elongatus are nomina dubia. R. bohemicus from Břešt’any (MN 3) represents the oldest record of this genus in Europe as well as the oldest occurrence of the genus.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0344437