Stupendemys

Stupendemys
Temporal range: Langhian - Messinian 9.0–7.246 Ma[1]
A young adult Stupendemys specimen
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Pleurodira
Family: Podocnemididae
Genus: Stupendemys
Wood, 1976
Species
  • S. geographica Wood, 1976
Synonyms
  • S. souzai Bocquentin & Melo, 2006

Stupendemys is an extinct genus of freshwater side-necked turtle, belonging to the family Podocnemididae. It is the largest freshwater turtle known to have existed, with a carapace over 2 meters long. Its fossils have been found in northern South America, in rocks dating from the Middle Miocene to the very start of the Pliocene, about 13 to 5 million years ago. Male specimens are known to have possessed bony horns growing from the front edges of the shell and the discovery of the fossil of a young adult shows that the carapace of these turtles flattens with age. A fossil skull described in 2021 indicates that Stupendemys was a generalist feeder.

  1. ^ "†Stupendemys Wood 1976 (sideneck turtle)". Fossilworks.