Abstract:
Eleven taxa of turtles have been recovered from the Lee Creek
Mine: a sideneck turtle ( Bothremys)\ six seaturtles ( Caretta, IChelonia, Lepidochelys, Procolpochelys, Syllomus, and Psephophorus); two pond turtles (probably Pseudemys and Trachemys); a
softshell turtle (trionychid); and a giant tortoise ( Geochelone ). The
fossils are largely disassociated skeletal elements and fragments
derived from spoil piles created by drag-line mining of phosphate.
The mining removes and discards the Yorktown Formation
(Pliocene) and processes much of the Pungo River Formation
(middle Miocene), hence the Lee Creek Mine turtles are mainly
from the lower Pliocene. The turtle fauna appears to be a natural
assemblage of extant and extinct taxa. Caretta and Syllomus are
the most abundant fossils; a few specimens of each had some
adherent Yorktown matrix. Geochelone fossils are next in abundance, although an order of magnitude less than Caretta and Syllomus. The other genera are each represented by fewer than 10
fragments or elements. Cranial and carapacial differences indicate
that the Lee Creek Caretta represents a new species, C. patriciae.
The Geochelone also differs from its eastern North American
Pliocene contemporaries by its larger size and unique plastral morphology. The fossils of the other taxa are too few and fragmentary
to identify reliably to species or genus.
