A large non-marine turtle from the Upper Cretaceous of Alabama and a review of North American "Macrobaenids".

The abundant record of marine turtles from the Late Cretaceous of Appalachia contrasts with the relatively poor record of contemporaneous terrestrial and freshwater species. A new taxon from the Santonian-Campanian of Alabama, Appalachemys ebersolei gen. et sp.

, a new fossil marine turtle from the Campanian Demopolis Chalk and the stratigraphic congruence of competing marine turtle phylogenies.

Resolving the phylogeny of sea turtles is uniquely challenging given the high potential for the unification of convergent lineages due to systematic homoplasy. Equivocal reconstructions of marine turtle evolution subsequently inhibit efforts to establish fossil calibrations for molecular divergence estimates and prevent the accurate reconciliation of biogeographic or palaeoclimatic data with phylogenetic hypotheses. Here we describe a new genus and species of marine turtle, , from the Upper Campanian Demopolis Chalk of Alabama and Mississippi, USA represented by three partial shells.

Zangerl, 1953 (Testudines: Pan-Cheloniidae) from the Late Cretaceous of the United States and the evolution of epithecal ossifications in marine turtles.

Background: Many neritic to nearshore species of marine adapted turtle from the Late Cretaceous of North America are thought to represent the stem lineage of Cheloniidae but due to fragmentary holotypes, low total specimen counts, and resultantly incomplete morphological character suites, are routinely placed either within or outside of crown group Chelonioidea leaving their precise cladistic affinities uncertain. Despite this systematic ambiguity, the referral of these species to either the stem of Cheloniidae or Chelonioidea belies the critical importance of these taxa in any investigation into the origins of extant marine turtles. The adequate incorporation of these species into phylogenetic studies requires the formal description of relatively complete specimens, particularly those possessing associated cranial and post-cranial material.

A new species of Peritresius Leidy, 1856 (Testudines: Pan-Cheloniidae) from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Alabama, USA, and the occurrence of the genus within the Mississippi Embayment of North America.

Late Cretaceous members of Peritresius belong to a diverse clade of marine adapted turtles currently thought to be some of the earliest representatives of the lineage leading to modern hard-shelled sea turtles (Pan-Cheloniidae). Prior studies have suggested that Peritresius was monospecific, with a distribution restricted to Maastrichtian deposits in North America. However, new Peritresius specimens identified from Alabama and Mississippi, USA, show that the genus contains two taxa, Peritresius ornatus, and a new species Peritresius martini sp.