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Turtle species extinction across the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2024

Evangelos Vlachos Open the ORCID record for Evangelos Vlachos [Opens in a new window]
Evangelos Vlachos*
Affiliation:
CONICET and Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, 9100 Trelew, Chubut, Argentina
*
Corresponding author: Evangelos Vlachos; Email: evlacho@mef.org.ar
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Abstract

The last mass extinction event some 66 million years ago at the Late Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary caused the extinction of many clades, including the non-avian dinosaurs. Turtles, as well as several other vertebrate clades, survived. However, the debate about whether the diversity of turtles was affected during this event is still ongoing. Here, I calculate a global turtle diversity curve at the species level that shows that the diversity of turtle species was already in decline since the Campanian, before the extinction event, and was further reduced during the Danian. The sample coverage of turtle occurrences at the stage level is also calculated and discussed.

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Article
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Paleobiology , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , November 2024 , pp. 641 - 647
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Paleontological Society

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