Cyclanorbinae

Cyclanorbinae, also known commonly as the flapshell turtles, is a subfamily of softshell turtles in the family Trionychidae. The subfamily is native to Africa and Asia.

Cyclanorbinae Temporal range: Late Cretaceous to recent, 70.6–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Indian flapshell turtle Lissemys punctata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Family:	Trionychidae
Subfamily:	Cyclanorbinae Lydekker, 1889

Taxonomy

Morphological evidence supports Cyclanorbinae being the sister group to the Plastomeninae, an extinct subfamily of softshell turtles that inhabited North America from the Cretaceous to the Eocene.^[1][2]

Genera

The subfamily Cyclanorbinae contains the following three extant genera.^[3]

• Cyclanorbis Gray, 1845
• Cycloderma W. Peters, 1854
• Lissemys M.A. Smith, 1931

One extinct prehistoric genus is also known from fossil remains: Nemegtemys Danilov et al., 2014, from the Cretaceous of Mongolia.^[4]

Geographic range

Species in the genera Cyclanorbis and Cycloderma are found in Africa; species in the genus Lissemys are found in Asia.^[5]