TURTLES FROM THE MATA AMARILLA FORMATION (CENOMANIAN), SANTA CRUZ, ARGENTINA: THE SOUTHERNMOST RECORD OF PROCHELIDELLA SPP. (PLEURODIRA: CHELIDAE)

Abstract

The fossil record of Cretaceous turtles in Santa Cruz Province is scarce. Turtles have been reported from the Mata Amarilla Formation (Cenomanian), the Cerro Fortaleza Formation (Campanian–Maastrichtian), and the Chorrillo Formation (early Maastrichtian). In this contribution, we examined all the turtle remains recovered from six localities in the Mata Amarilla Formation, nearby Mata Amarilla farm (Santa Cruz Province, Argentina). These fossils are housed at the “Padre Molina” Museum in Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz. Most of the carapace and plastral remains are conferred to an indeterminate small species of cf. Prochelidella sp., while the remaining fragments are attributed to a mid-sized species of an indeterminate Chelidae. Prochelidella spp. is a group of turtles distributed in Chubut, Río Negro, Neuquén, and Mendoza provinces, ranging from the Aptian to the Maastrichtian, with two main gaps (late Albian and Coniacian–Santonian). The recognition of cf. Prochelidella sp. in the Austral-Magallanes Basin extends the geographic range of this group more than 500 km south to the previously known southernmost record of Prochelidella, Pr. argentinae, from the Golfo San Jorge Basin (Chubut, Argentina).