Puentemys

Puentemys Temporal range: Late Paleocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Pleurodira
Family:	†Bothremydidae
Subtribe:	†Foxemydina
Genus:	†Puentemys Cadena et al., 2012
Type species
†Puentemys mushaisaensis Cadena et al., 2012

Puentemys is an extinct genus of bothremydid turtle from the Paleocene-age Cerrejón Formation in Colombia. It is the largest known bothremydid with a shell length of up to 1.51 m (5.0 ft). Puentemys is the only Paleocene bothremydid known from South America, and is most closely related to the genus Foxemys from the Late Cretaceous of Europe, showing that Bothremydini, the tribe of bothremydids to which Puentemys belonged, had a nearly worldwide distribution across the K-T boundary. The ancestors of Puentemys may have reached South America by dispersing across Paleocene coastlines or by riding currents across the Atlantic Ocean.^[1]

References