Eocene chelid turtles from Redbank Plains, Southeast Queensland, Australia

The rich fauna of freshwater turtles from Redbank Plains (Brisbane), Queensland, Eocene (or less probably Palaeocene) includes only Chelidae (Pleurodira). Besides an indeterminate form, five taxa are attributed to two of the three extant groups: three taxa to the Chelodina group, and one or two to the Emydura group, all new, but allowing the erection of only one new species, C. alanrixi. They show the degree of differentiation that had already occurred here in the evolution of several of the extant lineages of the two groups, consistent with the age of the two groups of genera within the family, which has been recorded from the Early Cretaceous of southern Argentina. It reflects the origin of the Chelidae on a single landmass, Gondwanaland, the family representing the southern component of the Pleurodira.