Prionochelys

Prionochelys is an extinct genus of pancheloniid from the Mooreville Chalk and Eutaw Formations of Alabama. It consists of a single species, P. matutina.

Taxonomy

Prionochelys was originally assigned to the family Toxochelyidae. A 2018 paper found it to be on the stem of Chelonioidea, the family to which most modern sea turtles belong, forming a monophyletic grouping named as Ctenochelyidae with Ctenochelys and Peritresius. Below is a cladogram from the analysis by Gentry, Ebersole & Kiernan :