Turtles 



SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY 



Testudines 

 Kinosternidae 

 Material: 1 right xiphiplastron (.25); 16 peripherals (.26-.44); 2 humeri (.45-. 46); 

 2 partial jaw rami (.755-. 756). 



Remarks: These fossil elements could only be identified with confidence to fam- 

 ily. 



Kinosternon subrubrum - Eastern Mud turtle (Lacepede, 1788) 



Material: 3 nuchals (.11 -.13); 2 right, 3 left hyoplastra (.6-. 10); 5 left hypoplas- 

 ia (.1-.5). 



Characters used for identification: The hyoplastron of Kinosternon subrubrum 

 can be separated from other North American Kinosternon and Sternotherus 

 because the axillary notch is narrower, and from Kinosternon baurii because the 

 axillary notch is wider and shallower (Holman 1985). K. subrubrum hyo- and 

 hypoplasia differ from Sternotherus odoratus in that the elements are shorter lat- 

 erally than medially in S. odoratus (Preston 1979). Characters used to identify 

 nuchal material are discussed by Holman (1975). In addition, nuchals of K. sub- 

 rubrum can be distinguished from nuchals of S. odoratus because the anterior lip 

 of the nuchal, viewed anteriorly, is nearly straight in K. subrubrum. Nuchals of 

 S. odoratus, viewed anteriorly, have a decided arc. 



Remarks: The eastern mud turtle inhabits a variety of shallow slow to non-mov- 

 ing bodies of water with a soft substrate, such as swamps, ponds, marshes, wet 

 meadows, and lagoons (Ernst and Barbour 1989). Kinosternon subrubrum today 

 ranges from southern Massachusetts and Pennsylvania along the Atlantic coast, 

 to the tip of Florida and west into Texas and Oklahoma (Conant and Collins 

 1991). K. subrubrum is common in the area of the Ardis site today and may be 

 sympatric with K. baurii (Lamb and Lovich 1990). 



This is the first report of this species from the fossil record of South 

 Carolina. Dobie and Jackson (1979) and Roth and Laerm (1980) both reported 

 the same single pygal bone from Edisto Island as "Kinosternon sp." 



Sternotherus odoratus - Common Musk turtle (Latreille, in Sonnini and 



Latreille, 1802) 



