Sinemys

Sinemys
Temporal range: Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
Holotype carapace and plastron (IVPP V9538) of S. brevispinus, Paleozoological Museum of China
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Pantestudines
Clade: Testudinata
Family: Sinemydidae
Genus: Sinemys
Wiman, 1930
Species
  • S. lens Wiman, 1930 (type)
  • S. brevispinus Tong and Brinkman, 2013
  • S. chabuensis Ji and Chen, 2018
  • S. gamera Brinkman and Peng, 1993

Sinemys is an extinct genus of turtle from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous of China. Three species have been named: S. lens, the type species, from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian of Shandong; S. gamera (Japanese: シネミス・ガメラ) (named after the movie monster of the same name), from the Valanginian-Albian of Nei Mongol, and S. brevispinus from Early Cretaceous of Nei Mongol. S. wuerhoensis, from the Aptian-Albian of Xinjiang, is not referrable to this genus. Specimen that may be belong to this genus were also known from Japan, although later abstract considered it as indeterminate sinemydid. The species S. gamera is noted for the presence of a pair of elongate spines projecting outwards and backwards from seventh costal of the carapace. These may have served a hydrodynamic function.