Dorsetochelys
Introduction '''''Dorsetochelys''''' is an extinct genus of turtle from the Early Cretaceous of southern England and northwestern Germany.
Taxonomy The type species, ''Dorsetochelys delairi'', was described on the basis of '''DORCM G.23''', a complete skull from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Purbeck Group of Dorset, England. Later, a turtle skull from the vicinity of Como Bluff, Wyoming, was described as a new species, ''D. buzzops'', in honor of Buzz Pitman, a museum director of the Rock River Museum near Como Bluff. However, a cladistic analysis conducted in 2013 recovered that species as a member of Baenidae, sister to ''Uluops''.In 2012, pleurosternid remains were described from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Bückeberg Formation of Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany, and this prompted a re-assessment of the problematic species ''"Pleurosternon" typocardium'', which had been tentatively referred to ''Glyptops'' by Milner (2004). The new genus ''Ballerstedtia'' was coined for ''"P." typocardium'', and the remains from Lower Saxony were named ''B. bueckergensis''. In a paper published in 2014, ''Ballerstedtia'' was synonymized with ''Dorsetochelys''.
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