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Carbonemys

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Carbonemys cofrinii is an extinct giant podocnemidid turtle known from the Middle Paleocene Cerrejón Formation of the Cesar-Ranchería Basin in northeastern Colombia. The formation is dated to approximately 60 to 57 million years ago, beginning about five million years after the KT extinction event.

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Contents
  • Discovery and Naming
  • Description
  • Paleobiology
  • References

Carbonemys cofrinii is an extinct giant podocnemidid turtle known from the Middle Paleocene Cerrejón Formation of the Cesar-Ranchería Basin in northeastern Colombia. The formation is dated to approximately 60 to 57 million years ago, beginning about five million years after the KT extinction event.

== Discovery and Naming== In 2005, Edwin Cadena, a doctoral student from North Carolina State University, discovered the holotype specimen in the Cerrejón coal mine. The genus name, meaning "Coal Turtle," is derived from Carbon" Latin for "coal" and "emys" Greek for "freshwater turtle," a reference to the coal mine from which the fossil was extracted. The specific epithet honors Dr. David Cofrin.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Carbonemys” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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