Turtles Protestudo bessarabica from the Late Miocene of Ukraine

Abstract

The paper describes three incomplete shells of terrestrial turtle Protestudo bessarabica (Testudinidae) from the Late Miocene (Maeotian, biozone MN 12) of the Belka locality (Ukraine). This is the first description of this species from Ukraine. Materials from Belka add to the data on morphology and variation of the P. bessarabica shell in the formula of the neural plates, the shape of the precentral scale and the gular projection. Additionally, materials from Belka confirm the previously known variation of the shell of P. bessarabica in other characters. This species had a wide geographic distribution in Eastern Europe (Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine) in a rather narrow time interval of the Late Sarmatian–Maeotian and may be important for biostratigraphic correlation.