New side-necked turtle (Pleurodira: Bothremydidae) from the Upper Maastrichtian of the Petites-Pyrenees (Haute-Garonne, France)

A nearly complete turtle shell from the Upper Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) of southern France is described as belonging to a new species of Elochelys, E. convenarum sp. nov. (Pleurodira: Pelomedusoides: Bothremydidae). It differs from E. perfecta Nopcsa, 1931 from the Campanian of the Fuveau Basin, southern France, mainly by its larger size, the presence of a suprapygal, the shape of the vertebral scutes and the wide posterior part of the intergular scute. This is the most complete turtle specimen and the first record of Elochelys from the Upper Maastrichtian of southern France, which indicates that the non-marine bothremyclids persisted well into the latest Cretaceous in,this region. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.