04198 - Rare Unidentified 1.12 Inch Turtle Plate Bone From Kem Kem

Extremely rare piece coming from the Cretaceous sites of the Kem Kem basin. It is the small osseous plate of a carapace of a turtle. It does not have any restoration or reparation. The plate is complete and presents a curious ornamentation with branching shapes. It is a small piece which deserves to be in any collection.

In these delta and fluvial ecosystems which constituted the paleogeography of the north of Africa 100 million years ago, multiple reptiles could be found, among which the turtles were one of them. However, the turtle rests in these sites are scarce and rare.

This piece has a complicated taxonomic assignation. Nevertheless, there are not many turtles described so far. Next we will list the ones which have been described until now:
- Dirqadim Gaffney et al.2006. Full reference: E. S. Gaffney, H. Tong, and P. A. Meylan. 2006. Evolution of the side-necked turtles: The families Bothremydidae, Euraxemydidae, and Araripemydidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 300:1-318
- Galianemys emringeri Gaffney et al. 2002. Full reference: E. S. Gaffney, H. Tong, and P. A. Meylan. 2002. Galianemys, a new side-necked turtle (Pelomedusoides: Bothremydidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco. American Museum Novitates 3379:1-20
- Hamadachelys escuilliei Tong and Buffetaut 1996