Cladogram of meiolaniid turtles with skulls showing three areas (A, B, C) for comparison. Temporal range incomplete and not to scale.

Taxa are:
(1) Niolamia argentina
(2) Ninjemys oweni
(3) Warkalania carinaminor
(4) Meiolania brevicollis
(5) Meiolania platyceps showing two extremes of horn variation
(6) Meiolania sp., Wyandotte
(7) Meiolania mackayi



Fossils of meiolaniids were first thought to belong to a giant lizard when described by Richard Owen in 1880. Further finds led Thomas Huxley, an early evolutionist, in 1887 to identify Meiolania as a turtle. More extensive recent collections have made clear the relationship of meiolaniids to cryptodires and have increased the diversity of the group
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