Study of the morphological variability in European fossil turtles

Abstract

Turtles (i.e., the members of Testudinata) represent a very diverse lineage of reptiles characterized by a conservative Bauplan, in which the presence of a shell stands out. However, although it is present for the different taxa, this structure often displays significant intraspecific variability, considering both the bones and the scutes arrangement. Despite the shells are relatively well-preserved in the fossil record, only a few studies have detailed addressed the intraspecific variation. This scarcity is primarily attributed to the limited sample sizes for most species, but also to other aspects, such as the poor preservation of the remains attributed to many of them. Consequently, many studies on extinct turtles are focused on the systematic characterization, frequently based on one or only a few specimens, with scarce or no consideration relative to the intraspecific morphological diversity. In addition, the limited literature available about the Testudinata intraspecific variability mainly focuses on pan-cryptodiran representatives due to their greater abundance and diversity of this clade relative to Pan-Pleurodira. As a result, the frequent absence of consideration of this important factor in the representatives of the crown Pleurodira generally causes errors or considerably limits in knowledge about the anatomical and even systematic characterization. In this context, the interspecific variability between some of the best-represented extinct pleurodiran taxa from Europe, and the intraspecific variability that affects each of them, and more precisely, to the Iberian Peninsula representatives, have been studied as part of this PhD Thesis. This research aims to improve our understanding of the different typologies of intraspecific variability (i.e., polymorphisms, ontogeny, sexual variation,