Skull morphology of Foxemys (Testudines: Pleurodira: Bothremydidae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Massecaps, Cruzy, southern France

Abstract

The Massecaps locality (Cruzy, Department of Hérault, France) has yielded abundant turtle remains. Most of them have been referred to Foxemys mechinorum Tong, Gaffney and Buffetaut, 1998 which belongs to Bothremydidae, an extinct pleurodiran turtle family. A previous study has shown that skulls from that locality exhibited some differences from the type series. It was suggested that these differences may represent intraspecific variation or diagnostic characters for a separate taxon. In this paper, the skulls from the Massecaps locality are described. Comparisons with the type series of Foxemys mechinorum confirm the assignment of the Massecaps bothremydids to that species. The cranial differences from the type series are interpreted as intraspecific variation and may be explained mainly by ontogeny.