Turtle teeth
The best place to look for turtle teeth
is where they lost them.
Here
in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2338 taxa) hardshell turtle tooth loss occurred between the small horned pareiasaur, Elginia (Fig 2) from Scotland, and the large horned turtle, Ninjemys (Fig 1) from Queensland, on the other side of the planet – and close to the South Pole during the Cretaceous in Gondwana (Fig 3).
Figure 1. Ninjemys museum mount. Note the appearance of teeth and the complete division of the narial opening deep inside.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ninjemys-skull-museum588-1.gif?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ninjemys-skull-museum588-1.gif?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-93523″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ninjemys-skull-museum588-1.gif” alt=”Figure 1. Ninjemys museum mount. Note the appearance of teeth and the complete division of the narial opening deep inside.” width=”584″ height=”546″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ninjemys-skull-museum588-1.gif?w=584&h=546 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ninjemys-skull-museum588-1.gif?w=150&h=140 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ninjemys-skull-museum588-1.gif?w=300&h=281 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ninjemys-skull-museum588-1.gif 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Ninjemys museum mount. Note the appearance of teeth and the complete division of the narial opening deep inside.
The dual origin of turtles
from two small, horned pareiasaurs was recovered by the LRT in 2016 and described by Peters (unpublished). Softshell turtles had a separate ancestry derived from small, horned Sclerosaurus (Fig 2) in the LRT.
Figure 1. Yinshanosaurus, a new, mid-sized pareiasaur with a narrow skull, is here shown to scale with related taxa in the LRT. DGS colors applied here. The occiput is shown as is and undistored. Green arrow points to genesis of the flared cheek bones in this clade emphasized in non-turtle ancestor pareiasaurs.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg?w=167″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg?w=569″ class=”size-full wp-image-93475″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Yinshanosaurus, a new, mid-sized pareiasaur with a narrow skull, is here shown to scale with related taxa in the LRT. DGS colors applied here. The occiput is shown as is and undistored. Green arrow points to genesis of the flared cheek bones in this clade emphasized in non-turtle ancestor pareiasaurs.” width=”584″ height=”1052″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg?w=584&h=1052 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg?w=83&h=150 83w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg?w=167&h=300 167w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Yinshanosaurus, a new, mid-sized pareiasaur with a narrow skull, is here shown to scale with related taxa in the LRT. DGS colors applied here. The occiput is shown as is and undistored. Green arrow points to genesis of the flared cheek bones in this clade emphasized in non-turtle ancestor pareiasaurs.
Ninjemys oweni
(Woodward 1888, Gaffney 1992; originally Meiolania oweni Woodward 1888) nests between Elginia and the hard-shell turtles in the LRT. Note the laterally oriented horns. This taxon is known from a skull and tail club from the Pleistocene of Queensland, Australia.
Take a moment to think about this. Elginia had no shell. In Ninjemys no shell was found between the skull and tail. Niolamia includes shell parts, thickest toward the rim. Meiolania, had a domed shell (Fig 4) and the smallest horns of all the meiolanid turtles.
In most tetrapod taxa, larger horns (wherever present) developed in derived taxa. By contrast, turtles started out with large horns, as in Elgiinia (Fig 2). Horns were larger in Ninjemys, then reduced in Meiolania (Fig 3) and finally lost in all derived and extant hardshell turtles.
Figure 3. Pliocene Ninjemys location in Queensland during the Cretaceous at the breakup of Gondwana. With Elginia in subtropical Scotland during the Late Permian.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/niolamia_australia_cenozoic588.jpg?w=285″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/niolamia_australia_cenozoic588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-93514″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/niolamia_australia_cenozoic588.jpg” alt=”Figure 3. Pliocene Ninjemys location in Queensland during the Cretaceous at the breakup of Gondwana. With Elginia in subtropical Scotland during the Late Permian. ” width=”584″ height=”616″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/niolamia_australia_cenozoic588.jpg?w=584&h=616 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/niolamia_australia_cenozoic588.jpg?w=142&h=150 142w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/niolamia_australia_cenozoic588.jpg?w=285&h=300 285w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/niolamia_australia_cenozoic588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 3. Pliocene Ninjemys location in Queensland during the Cretaceous at the breakup of Gondwana. With Elginia in subtropical Scotland during the Late Permian.
Elginia mirabilis
(Newton 1893, Late Permian, skull length = 15 cm) is traditionally considered a small horned pareiasaur. In the LRT Elginia nests as derived from a sister to the proto-turtles Bunostegos and is a sister to the horned turtle Meiolania, with species that outlived the non-avian dinosaurs. Only the skull is known.
Figure 3. Meiolania is another club-tailed, short-toed turtle like Proganochelys.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/meiolania.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/meiolania.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-14295″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/meiolania.jpg” alt=”Figure 3. Meiolania is another club-tailed, short-toed turtle like Proganochelys.” width=”584″ height=”201″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/meiolania.jpg?w=584&h=201 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/meiolania.jpg?w=150&h=52 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/meiolania.jpg?w=300&h=103 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/meiolania.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 3. Meiolania is another club-tailed, short-toed turtle like Proganochelys. Note the the laterally oriented elbows here, distinct from all other turtles.
As noted earlier,
the plastron of Meiolania (Fig 4) was different from that of all other turtles because it did not restrict the lateral extension of the sprawling limbs, as in ancestral pareiasaurs and basal tetrapods.
All other turtles, even sea turtles, extend the elbows anteriorly.
Other turtle workers do not consider meiolanids the most basal hardshell turtles, nor do they recognize Elginia as a hardshell turtle outgroup taxon due to taxon exclusion, stlll the number one problem in paleontology as determined by the LRT.
References
Geffney ES 1992. Ninjemys, a new name for “Meiolania” oweni (Woodward), a Horned Turtle from the Pleistocene of Queensland”. American Museum Novitates. 3049: 1–10.
Newton ET 1893. On some new reptiles from the Elgin Sandstone: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, series B 184:473-489.
Peters D 2016. The dual origin of turtles. ResearchGate.net
Woodward AS 1888. Notes on the Extinct Reptilian Genera Megalania, Owen, and Meiolania, Owen. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Series 6. 1(1): 85–89.
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/07/04/turtle-teeth/
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