The earliest known crown-Testudo tortoise from the late Miocene (Vallesian, 9 Ma) of Greece

Géraldine Garcia; Aurélie Pinton; Xavier Valentin; Dimitris S Kostopoulos; Gildas Merceron; Louis de Bonis; George D Koufos

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0224783

The earliest known crown-Testudo tortoise from the late Miocene (Vallesian, 9 Ma) of Greece

PLoS One. 2020 Apr 8;15(4):e0224783. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224783. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Géraldine Garcia¹, Aurélie Pinton¹, Xavier Valentin¹, Dimitris S Kostopoulos², Gildas Merceron¹, Louis de Bonis¹, George D Koufos²

Affiliations

¹ PALEVOPRIM, UMR CNRS 7262, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France.
² Department of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Abstract

We here report on fossil remains of the earliest known crown-Testudo, an extant clade of Mediterranean testudinid tortoises from the late Miocene (Vallesian, MN 10) from the hominoid locality Ravin de la Pluie (RPl) in Greece. The material studied is a small, nearly complete carapace with a clearly distinct hypo-xiphiplastral hinge. This supports the sensu stricto generic assignment. This new terrestrial testudinid specimen is characterized by a possible tectiform, narrow, elongated shell with a pentagonal pygal and a long, posteriorly elevated, lenticular and rounded dorsal epiplastral lip. These unique features differ from those of other known Mediterranean hinged forms and allow the erection of the new species Testudo hellenica sp. nov. This taxon is phylogenetically close to two Greek species, the extant T. marginata and the fossil T. marmorum (Turolian, around 7.3 Ma). This record provides evidence for the first appearance of the genus Testudo sensu stricto at a minimum age of 9 Ma.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animal Shells / anatomy & histology
Animals
Fossils / anatomy & histology*
Greece
Phylogeny
Turtles / anatomy & histology*
Turtles / classification

Grants and funding

Field excavations in Greece and this work were supported in part by funding from the RHOI/NSF (Revealing Hominid Origins Initiative/National Science Foundation, PIs: L. de Bonis & G. D. Koufos) and also by the budget of our research team (UMR CNRS 7262). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.