A Sea Turtle (Cheloniidae) from the Middle Eocene of North Caucasus

Abstract

The incomplete skeleton of a juvenile sea turtle (Cheloniidae) is described from the terminal Bartonian (late Middle Eocene) of the Gorny Luch locality (Krasnodar krai, Russia) as Eochelone sp. The new find extends the known geographic distribution of turtles of the genus Eochelone Dollo, 1903, previously known in Europe only from the Lutetian of Belgium and Ukraine, the Bartonian of England and the Priabonian of Spain. In addition, the described specimen has common features with “Allopleuron” qazaqstanense Karl et al., 2012 from the Bartonian and, possibly, the Lutetian of Kazakhstan.