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Journal of Paleontology

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A New Species of Palatobaena (Testudines: Baenidae) and a Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian Phylogenetic Analysis of Baenidae

¹ Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, 210 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, <tyler.lyson{at}yale.edu>
² Marmarth Research Foundation, Marmarth, North Dakota 58643
³ Institut für Geowissenschaften, University of Tübingen, Sigwartstraße 10, 72076 Tübingen, Germany, <walter.joyce{at}uni-tuebingen.de>
⁴ Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, CT 06511

New Palatobaena material from the Hell Creek Formation (Maastrichtian), including the first skull and shell association, from southwestern North Dakota represents a new species named herein Palatobaena cohen. The material consists of 4 skulls, 2 lower jaws, and 2 shells and represents a true biological population (spatially and temporally restricted), which provides unprecedented access to ontogenetic and other intraspecific variation found in this taxon. The skull's round shape and lack of a lingual ridge on the greatly expanded triturating surface indicate its Palatobaena affinities, but it differs from both previously existing Palatobaena taxa in a number of features. The addition of shell characters to the most inclusive baenid phylogenetic analyses (Maximum parsimony and Bayesian) to date indicate that Pa. cohen is sister taxon to the other Palatobaena taxa. Notably, both the maximum parsimony analysis and Bayesian analysis provide strong support for Plesiobaena antiqua as sister to the Palatobaena clade. In addition, both analyses provide strong support for Stygiochelys estesi as sister to the Eocene clade of Baena arenosa and Chisternon undatum, which significantly reduces this clades' ghost lineage. The baenid topology reveals a demonstrably homoplastic trend towards the reduction of the temporal emargination and unique thickening of the posterior portion of the parietals that corresponds with the K/T boundary and is hypothesized to have provided limited protection from increasingly effective mammalian predators.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				T. R. LYSON and W. G. JOYCE A REVISION OF PLESIOBAENA (TESTUDINES: BAENIDAE) AND AN ASSESSMENT OF BAENID ECOLOGY ACROSS THE K/T BOUNDARY Journal of Paleontology, November 1, 2009; 83(6): 833 - 853. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]