The occurrence of freshwater turtle remains in the late Miocene lignites of southern Tuscany (Montebamboli and Casteani, Italy) has been known since the nineteenth century. Three chelonian species were recognized by Ristori in 1891:Emys depressa, E. campanii, andE. parva.Revision of their type material, together with the study of new fossils from a different but correlated locality, Pian Calcinaio (Scansano), allows one to state that they can be referred to the genusMauremysand that they belong to one single species. the new combinationM. campanii(Ristori, 1891) is here proposed. Phylogenetic analysis indicates thatM. campaniiis closely related to the modern post-Miocene group ofMauremysspecies and shows a sister-group relationship with the Plio-PleistoceneM. gaudryi.the remains ofM. campaniicome from an insular setting which progressively lost its endemic mammal fauna, defined as theOreopithecusZone Fauna, enabling us to compare the pattern of survival of the chelonians with that of the mammals. in contrast to the radical turnover suffered by mammals, softshell turtles (Trionyxsp.) and terrapins (M. campanii) are present both in the pre-Messinian V1-V2 and Messinian V3 assemblages. Terrestrial tortoises (Testudo amiataePantanelli, 1893,Testudos.l.) show a different pattern, because they appear only in the V3 assemblage, possibly because they apparently dispersed into Italy as recently as the Messinian.M. campaniirepresents the southernmost evidence of the genusMauremysin the uppermost Miocene of Europe, filling a gap in the palaeogeographic and chronological distribution of this genus.