#cryptodira

Jiangxichelys neimongolensis was a terrestrial turtle that was part of an extinct group known as nanhsiungchelyids, whose closest living relatives today are the aquatic softshell turtles.

(This species was previously known as "Zangerlia” neimongolensis, but has since been moved into the genus Jiangxichelys instead.)

It lived towards the end of the Cretaceous, about 75-71 million years ago, in what is now the Gobi Desert – which at the time was more of a semi-arid climate with both rivers and sand dunes.

Its 60cm long (~2') carapace had a long wide shape that made it appear rather flattened from the front, but not to quite as much an extreme as its larger American cousin Basilemys.

Several fairly well-preserved specimens have been found that appear to have been buried alive, probably either engulfed by sudden sandstorms or trapped in collapsing burrows. This has preserved some anatomical details previously unknown in nanhsiungchelyids, such as the pattern of scales on top of the head and the presence of large bony osteoderms on the underside of the front toes, which may have aided with traction on loose sandy ground.

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Marginated Tortoise Testudo marginata

Anciients | Imperishable (SWE) | Impureza | Quadvium | Changeling | Vildhjarta | Phantom Heir | Car Bomb | Cryptodira | The Judge The Juror | Mawiza | Ancient Thrones | Visitant

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Music On This Mixtape:

Anciients: "Celestial Tyrant" taken from the album "Beyond the Reach of the Sun"

Imperishable (SWE): "Riding Demons" taken from the album "Swallowing The World"

Impureza: "Pestilencia" taken from the album "Alcázares"

Quadvium: "Apophis" taken from the album "Tetradōm"

Changeling: "World What World" taken from the album "Changeling"

Vildhjarta: "+ sargasso +" taken from the album "+ där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar +"

Phantom Heir: "The Revelation" taken from the album "Fragile Immortals"

Car Bomb: "Paroxysm" taken from the EP "Tiles Whisper Dreams"

Cryptodira: "The Same River Twice" taken from the album "Genesis of Error"

The Judge The Juror: "Heliconian Optivisor" taken from the single "Heliconian Optivisor"

Mawiza: "Mamüll Reke" taken from the album "ÜL"

Ancient Thrones: "A Moon Fused Key" taken from the album "Melancholia"

Softshell Turtle stretch

Bashuchelys was a genus of bashuchelyid turtle from the Middle Jurassic. Its type species is B. zigongensis. The other included species is B. youngi. Its known specimens were found in the Sichuan Basin, China. Bashuchelys' known material is made up of many fossils originally assigned to Chengychelys.

"Bashu" means "Bashan," which refers to both the Ba mountain of the Chongqing area and the Shushui river system (also an alternate Chinese name for the Sichuan-Chongqing area). "chelys" is greek for turtle. B. zigongensis, originally assigned to Chengychelys, is named after the nearby town of Zigong, China. B. youngi honors the original discoverer of Chengchelys, C. C. Young.

Its autapomorphies include one pair of mesoplastra that meet at the midline, a hypoplastron-mesoplastron suture that is very close to the pectoroabdominal sulcus, regular and elongate neural series, the fourth vertebral scute is twice as wide as it is long and notably wider than the third vertebral, a sulcus between the third and fourth vertebrals on the sixth neural, the plastron sutured to the carapace, a fan-shaped bridge with long axillary and inguinal buttresses, a short area of contact between the epiplastra at the midline, the humeropectoral sulcus lying far anterior to the axillary notch, a notably longer pectoral scute than the abdominal, an omega-shaped femoroanal sulcus that extends onto the hypoplastron, a leaf-shaped entoplastron with serrated posterolateral margins, one pair of intergulars extending deeply onto the endoplastron, and four inframarginals.

Bashuchelys is known from several shell fossils of various completeness. Its family, Bashuchelyidae, is a primitive member of Cryptodira.

Citations: Bashuchelys formal diagnosis; "Chengchelys" baenoides description; "Chengchelys" zigongensis description