Class Sauropsida Suborder Cryptodira Rank Genus | Phylum Chordata Order Testudines | |
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Similar Pleurosternon, Paracryptodira, Chisternon, Sinaspideretes | ||
Glyptops (Greek for "grooved face") is an extinct genus of cryptodire turtle dating from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods 155 to 99 m.y.a. Fossils have been found in South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas from both the Morrison and Cedar Mountain formations. The type species is G. plicatulus, which had been named Compsemys plicatulus by Edward Drinker Cope.
Taxonomy
The type species, Glyptops plicatulus, was first described as Compsemys plicatulus on the basis of AMNH 6099, a partial shell from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado. In the meantime, a partial skull, YPM 1784 (described from Como Bluff, Wyoming), was named Glyptops ornatus. Later, Oliver Perry Hay recognized Compsemys plicatulus and Glyptops ornatus as being from the same species, hence the new combination G. plicatulus. Another Morrison species of Glyptops, G. utahensis, was described from a complete shell (CM 3412) found at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.
The species Glytops caelatus Hay, 1908 was described from the middle Cretaceous (late Aptian-early Albian) Arundel Formation of Maryland. However, it was later dismissed as a nomen dubium based on non-diagnostic remains.
