Chelus

For the ancient Greek lyre, see Chelys.

Chelus
Temporal range: Miocene–recent[1]
Chelus fimbriatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Pleurodira
Family: Chelidae
Subfamily: Chelinae
Genus: Chelus
Duméril, 1805[2]

Chelus is a genus of large freshwater turtles found in tropical South America. Formerly considered to be a monotypic genus,[3] it now consists of two extant species after Chelus orinocensis was identified in 2020 from a genetic analysis.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference PaleobiologyDB was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Duméril, A.M.C. 1805. Zoologie Analytique, ou Méthode Naturelle de Classification des Animaux. Paris: Perronneau, 344 pp.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference ttwg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Sanchez-Vilaga, Marcelo R.; Prichard, Peter C. H.; Paolillo, Alfredo; Linares, Omar J. (January 1995). "Geographic variation in the matamata turtle, Chelus fimbriatus, with observations on its shell morphology and morphometry" (PDF). Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 1: 292–300.