Dermochelyidae

Dermochelyidae is a family of sea turtles which has seven extinct genera and one extant genus, containing one living species, the leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). The oldest fossils of the group date to the Late Cretaceous.

Dermochelyidae Temporal range: Late Cretaceous-Holocene, 84–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Leatherback turtles are the only living representative of the Dermochelys family.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Superfamily:	Chelonioidea
Family:	Dermochelyidae Fitzinger, 1843[1]
Genera
See text.
Synonyms[1]
Sphargidae Gray, 1825 Dermatochelydae Fitzinger, 1843 Athecae Cope, 1871 Athecata Lydekker, 1889 Dermochelyidae Lydekker, 1889

Classification of known genera

The following list of dermochelyid species was published by Hirayama and Tong in 2003, unless otherwise noted.^[2]

• †Arabemys crassiscutata
• †Eosphargis breineri
• †Mesodermochelys undulatus
• Subfamily Dermochelyinae^[3]
  • †Cosmochelys
  • Dermochelys coriacea – leatherback sea turtle^[3]
  • †Psephophorus

Hypothetical reconstruction of Psephophorus terrypratchetti

Phylogeny

Evers et al. (2019):^[4]

Panchelonioidea	†Toxochelys †Protostegidae Chelonioidea †Corsochelys Dermochelyidae †Nichollsemys †Allopleuron Cheloniidae †Argillochelys †Procolpochelys †Eochelone †Puppigerus †Ctenochelys †Peritresius †Cabindachelys