Compsemys variolosus, Cope, 1876

Cope, E. D., 1876, Descriptions of some vertebrate remains from the Fort Union beds of Montana, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 28, pp. 248-261 : 257-258

Compsemys variolosus , sp. nov.

One of the most abunidant, and the largest species of the Fort Union beds. The carapace is convex and the plastron flat; the marginal bones are heavy and strongly convex on the inferior side. The margin of the plastron is thickened and heavy, characters which also belong to all parts of the carapace. The sutures of the dermal sculta are deeply impressed, and the surface of the bone is strongly sculptured above and below, and even on the superior face of the thickened margins of the free lobes of the plastron. The sculpture consists of round fossae, which are deeply impressed and are arranged quincuncially, so that their borders never form straight lines. The latter are also more or less angulate on the edge, so that the surface has a more than usually rugose character.

The typical specimen equals those of the large land tortoises of the Eocene in dimensions.

Discovered by C. H..Sternberg .