The fossil record of turtles and tortoises (Testudines) of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean Islands, with comments on its taxonomy and paleobiogeography: a bibliographic review

Testudines is the crown-group that includes all living forms of turtles and their closest extinct relatives. This group is known to exist starting in the Middle Jurassic. The fossil record of Testudines in Mexico is scarce but has been previously compiled in several papers. In this paper, we are presenting an update that includes all osteological and ichnological records of Mexico, and we have added fossil records of turtles and tortoises from Central America and the Caribbean Islands. In Mexico, the Testudines fossil record extends from the Late Jurassic to the Pleistocene, and widely abundant during the late Pleistocene. Kinosternon and Gopherus are the best represented taxa, known from the late Miocene to the late Pleistocene. In Mexico, records of fossil turtles show a wide distribution, except in the areas around the states of Campeche and Quintana Roo in the east; Colima, Guerrero, and Sinaloa in the west, and Querétaro, and Mexico City in the center. Ichnological records are known only in Coahuila, Puebla and Zacatecas. Reports of fossil turtles in Central America include El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama-the latter being the country with the most records-and in the Caribbean Islands including Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the United States islands of Puerto Rico and Navassa, and the British Island of Sombrero in Anguilla. Seven fossil turtles have been described as new species in Mexico (Notoemys tlaxiacoensis, Yelmochelys rosarioae, Mexichelys coahuilaensis, Allaeochelys liliae, Gopherus donlaloi, G. auffenbergi and G. pargensis, of which G. auffenbergi is synonymous with G. berlandieri, and G. pargensis is considered a nomen vanum); two from Panama (Rhinoclemmys panamaensis and Staurotypus moschus); one from Costa Rica (Rhinoclemmys nicoyama); two from Cuba (Notoemys oxfordensis and Chelonoidis cubensis); one from the Dominican Republic (Chelonoidis marcanoi), one from Puerto Rico (Chelonoidis monensis), and one from Sombrero Island, Anguilla (Chelonoidis sombrerensis)