Pangshura tatrotia, a new species of pond turtle (Testudinoidea) from the Pliocene Siwaliks of Pakistan

We describe a new species of fossil testudinoid from the Indian subcontinent, Pangshura tatrotia sp. nov., and suggest a new clade name, Palatochelydia, for the monophyletic assemblage of South Asian turtles to which it belongs. A combined analysis using recent molecular data and an updated morphological dataset confidently places P. tatrotia as sister to the extant turtle P. tecta. The holotype specimen is unique relative to most previously described palatochelydian material in that it is associated with good quality locality information. We therefore can conclude that this specimen comes from the Pliocene Tatrot Formation of north-eastern Pakistan, which corresponds to an interval of 2.59 to 3.59 Ma. This can now serve as a minimum divergence date for the P. tecta clade. However, given that no other palatochelydian fossils are associated with good quality locality information, this date must also serve as the minimum for all other, more inclusive palatochelydian clades.