New materials on the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) turtles' assemblages from Bahariya depression, Western Desert, Egypt

Turtle remains from the Bahariya Formation, which had been discovered earlier by Stromer in 1934, namely Apertotemporalis baharijensis, but unfortunately were destroyed during World War II. The present materials were previously collected from the lower beds of the Bahariya Formation, situated near the southwestern end of Gebel El-Fagga in the northeastern part of the Bahariya Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt. Because the turtles' materials collected from the Bahariya Formation are highly fragmented, further systematic classification is difficult to confirm. The present study confirms the presence of more than one family of turtles in the Bahariya Formation. The collected turtle shell plates reveal three families based on shape and size differences: 1) Araripemydidae, 2) Bothremydidae, and 3) A marine taxon Chelonioidea. The present work records new materials for the testudines taxa and nominates Egypt's oldest known turtle’ lineages.