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Psephochelys

Say it: SEF-oh-KEL-iss

Name means: “pebbly turtle”1

Ate: FishSea reptilesLate TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Psephochelys was a turtle-like marine reptile that lived in the Late Triassic period, about 233 to 227 million years ago. It had a shell on its back made of many small bony plates, but no shell on its belly, just loose bones. It swam in warm seas where China is today.1 2

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

234 to 227 million years ago4

Late Triassic

Fossils found in

Guizhou Province, China1 2

Food

Fish3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Psephochelys is known from only one species, Psephochelys polyosteoderma, and the first fossil was a partial skeleton found in the Falong Formation in China.1

Unlike turtles, Psephochelys had no hard shell on its belly. Instead, it had rib-like bones and small bony plates that were loosely connected.1

A subadult specimen shows that the shell of Psephochelys grew by fusing small plates together, starting from the middle and edges, similar to how a turtle's shell develops.3

Psephochelys belonged to a group called placodonts, which were marine reptiles that looked like turtles but are not closely related to them.1

The name Psephochelys means 'pebbly turtle' because its shell was made of many small, pebble-like bony plates.1

Psephochelys lived during the Carnian age of the Late Triassic, between about 233 and 227 million years ago.2

AI-made picture of Psephochelys — An AI-made picture of how Psephochelys might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Psephochelys
Named by: Li and Rieppel 20024
Group: Sea reptiles
Family / clade: Placochelyidae4
Classification: Placodontia > Sauropterygia4
Age of the rocks: 234 to 227 million years (Carnian)4
Rock formations: Xiaowa4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Psephochelys was named by Chinese paleontologist Chun Li and Swiss paleontologist Olivier Rieppel in 2002, based on a single partial skeleton found in Guizhou, China.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Psephochelys is related to other placodonts, and whether its shell grew in a way that hints at a common ancestor with turtles.3

Where the facts come from

Psephochelys (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
First subadult specimen of Psephochelys polyosteoderma (Sauropterygia, Placodontia) implies turtle-like fusion pattern of the carapace (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
Psephochelys in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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