The latest freshwater giants: a new Peltocephalus (Pleurodira: Podocnemididae) turtle from the Late Pleistocene of the Brazilian Amazon

Overkill of large mammals is recognised as a key driver of Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions in the Americas and Australia. While this phenomenon primarily affected mega-mammals, its impact on large Quaternary reptiles has been debated. Freshwater turtles, due to the scarcity of giant forms in the Quaternary record, have been largely neglected in such discussions. Here we present a new giant podocnemidid turtle, Peltocephalus maturin sp. nov., from the Late Pleistocene Rio Madeira Formation in the Brazilian Amazon, that challenges this assumption. Morphological and phylogenetic analyses of the holotype, a massive partial lower jaw, reveal close affinities to extant Amazonian species and suggests an omnivorous diet. Body size regressions indicate Pe. maturin possibly reached about 180 cm in carapace length and is amongst the largest freshwater turtles ever found. This finding presents the latest known occurrence of giant freshwater turtles, hinting at coexistence with early human inhabi..., , , # The latest freshwater giants: a new Peltocephalus (Pleurodira: Podocnemididae) turtle from the Late Pleistocene of the Brazilian Amazon

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zpc866tg2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zpc866tg2)

This dataset contains a file with a detailed description of methodology, materials and results obtained in this publication, as well as original raw and processed data, and R scripts used for the analyses.

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset contains:

1. Suppl_File_S2: morphometric dataset related to the analyses in the R script (Suppl_File_S7)
* Eight linear measurements of the dentary bone in mm (ML, maximum length in lateral view, MW, maximum width, MiL, midline length, HC, height at the coronoid process, SH, symphysis height, TSL, triturating surface length, TSW, triturating surface width, TSML, triturating surface midline length)
* One angular measurement (JRA) of the jaw rami

2. Suppl_File_S3: body size dataset related to...