Hesperotestudo

{{Short description|Genus of turtle}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|Early Miocene|Late Pleistocene}}

| image = Hesperotestudo in glass case.webp

| image_caption = Skeletal reconstruction of Hesperotestudo sp.

| image2 = Hesperotestudo.jpg

| image2_caption = Skull of Hesperotestudo osborniana

| taxon = Hesperotestudo

| authority = Williams, 1950

| type_species = Hesperotestudo osborniana

| type_species_authority = (Hay, 1904)

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = See text

}}

Hesperotestudo ("Western turtle") is an extinct genus of tortoise native to North and Central America (ranging as far south as Costa Rica{{Cite journal |last1=Carbot-Chanona |first1=Gerardo |last2=Rivera-Velázquez |first2=Gustavo |last3=Jiménez-Hidalgo |first3=Eduardo |last4=Reynoso |first4=Víctor Hugo |date=2020-11-04 |title=The fossil record of turtles and tortoises (Testudines) of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean Islands, with comments on its taxonomy and paleobiogeography: a bibliographic review |url=http://rmcg.geociencias.unam.mx/index.php/rmcg/article/view/1581 |journal=Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=269–283 |doi=10.22201/cgeo.20072902e.2020.3.1581 |issn=2007-2902|doi-access=free }}) from the Early Miocene to the Late Pleistocene. Species of Hesperotestudo varied widely in size, with a large undescribed specimen from the Late Pleistocene of El Salvador reaching {{cvt|150|cm|ft}} in carapace length, larger than that of extant giant tortoises.{{cite journal |author1=Rhodin, A.G.J. |author2=Thomson, S. |author3=Georgalis, G. |author4=Karl, H.-V. |author5=Danilov, I.G. |author6=Takahashi, A. |author7=de la Fuente, M.S. |author8=Bourque, J.R. |author9=Delfino M. |author10=Bour, R. |author11=Iverson, J.B. |author12=Shaffer, H.B. |author13=van Dijk, P.P. |year=2015 |title=Turtles and tortoises of the world during the rise and global spread of humanity: first checklist and review of extinct Pleistocene and Holocene chelonians. |url=http://www.iucn-tftsg.org/wp-content/uploads/file/Accounts/crm_5_000e_fossil_checklist_v1_2015.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Chelonian Research Monographs |volume=5 |issue=8 |pages=000e.1–66 |doi=10.3854/crm.5.000e.fossil.checklist.v1.2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921185503/https://iucn-tftsg.org/wp-content/uploads/file/Accounts/crm_5_000e_fossil_checklist_v1_2015.pdf |archive-date=21 September 2022 |doi-access=free |collaboration=Turtle Extinctions Working Group}} Historically considered a subgenus of Geochelone, it is now considered to be distantly related to that genus. Its relationships with other tortoises are uncertain. 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.{{Cite journal|last1=Moll|first1=Don|last2=Brown|first2=Lauren E.|date=2017|title=Reinterpretation of the Climatic Adaptation of Giant Fossil Tortoises in North America|url=https://www.thebhs.org/publications/the-herpetological-journal/volume-27-number-3-july-2017/1022-06-reinterpretation-of-the-climatic-adaptation-of-giant-fossil-tortoises-in-north-america|journal=Herpetological Journal|language=en-gb|volume=27|issue=3|pages=276–286}} 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.{{cite book|editor-last1=Anderson|editor-first1=David G.|editor-last2=Sassaman|editor-first2=Kenneth E.|last1=Dunbar|first1=James S.|last2=Webb|first2=S. David|year=1996|title=The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast|chapter=17. Bone and Ivory Tools from Submerged Paleoindian Sites in Florida|publisher=University Alabama Press|pages=331–353}}{{cite journal|last1=Grayson|first1=Donald K.|last2=Meltzer|first2=David J.|year=2003|title=A requiem for North American overkill|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=30|issue=5|pages=585–593|doi=10.1016/S0305-4403(02)00205-4|bibcode=2003JArSc..30..585G }}