Hesperotestudo ("Western turtle") is an extinctgenusoftortoise native to North and Central America (ranging as far south as Costa Rica[1]) from the Early Miocene to the Late Pleistocene.[2] Species of Hesperotestudo varied widely in size, with a large undescribed specimen from the Late Pleistocene of El Salvador reaching 150 cm (4.9 ft) in carapace length, larger than that of extant giant tortoises.[3] Historically considered a subgenusofGeochelone, it is now considered to be distantly related to that genus. Its relationships with other tortoises are uncertain.[2] The exposed areas of the bodies of Hesperotestudo species were extensively covered with large dermal ossicles, which in life were covered in keratin. It has been suggested that species of Hesperotestudo were relatively tolerant of cold weather.[4]Hesperotestudo became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene roughly co-incident with the arrival of the first humans in North America. There is apparently a site in Florida where one individual may have been killed that some suggested were evidence of butchering, although others suggested that the turtle was neither cooked nor does a ledge that was found near it date at the same time as it.[3][5][6]
†Hesperotestudo bermudae Meylan and Sterrer 2000[8] Bermuda, Middle Pleistocene c. 310,000 years before present (YBP) - shell length c. 50 centimetres (1.6 ft)[3][9]
†Hesperotestudo crassiscutata (Leidy 1889)[10] Florida, Texas, Illinois, South Carolina, (possibly also El Salvador[1]) Middle-Late Pleistocene shell length c. 120–125 centimetres (3.94–4.10 ft)[3]
^Dunbar, James S.; Webb, S. David (1996). "17. Bone and Ivory Tools from Submerged Paleoindian Sites in Florida". In Anderson, David G.; Sassaman, Kenneth E. (eds.). The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast. University Alabama Press. pp. 331–353.
^Leidy, J. 1889. Description of vertebrate remains from Peace Creek, Florida. Transactions of the Wagner Free Institute of Science of Philadelphia 2:19–31.
