Name:
Cratochelone.
Phonetic: Cra-to-cel-one.
Named By: Herber L. Longman - 1915.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Testudines,
Cryptodira, Protostegidae.
Species: C. berneyi (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Possibly up to about 4 meters long.
Known locations: Australia, Queensland -
Toolebuc Formation.
Time period: Albian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial fore limb remains as
well as a fragment of shell.
Though only known from partial remains, Cratochelone has been confirmed as being a protostegid turtle, and one that was very large in size. Though some researchers have credited Cratochelone as being only about two meters in length, the original and more recent studies have ascertained that Cratochelone may have actually reached up to four meters in length, making Cratochelone comparable to genera such as Archelon and Protostega
Further
reading
- On a giant turtle from the Queensland Lower Cretaceous. -
Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 3: 24–29. ISSN 0079-8835.
- Herber L. Longman - 1915.
- Reassessment of Cratochelone berneyi Longman,
1915, a giant sea
turtle from the Early Cretaceous of Australia. - Journal of
Vertebrate Paleontology 26 (3): 779–783. - Benjamin P.
Kear - 2006.