Trionychian turtles from the Early Miocene (Burdigalian) Moghra Formation, Egypt, including a new species of Carettochelyidae

Although trionychians have a rich fossil record, much of their fossil diversity is known from the Cretaceous and Paleogene, and little is known about their evolutionary history in the Neogene. We here describe cranial and shell material of trionychians from the Early Miocene Moghra Formation of Egypt that we attribute to a new carettochelyid taxon, <i>Allaeochelys meylani</i> sp. nov., and to the <i>Trionyx</i> lineage. <i>Allaeochelys meylani</i> sp. nov. fills a temporal gap between previously described taxa and exhibits a series of unique features, including greatly thickened cranial bones, a broad bony wall posterior to the orbit, a large fossa formed by the maxilla and premaxilla at the anterior third of the triturating surface, and a medial process on peripheral II. <i>Allaeochelys meylani</i> sp. nov. also documents the oldest occurrence of <i>Carettochelyidae</i> on the Afro-Arabian continent, while the <i>Trionyx</i> material reported herein provides unambiguous evidence for the presence of this lineage on the Afro-Arabian continent no later than the Early Miocene.