The occurrence of the New Guinea Turtle (Carettochelys) in the Miocene of Papua
Abstract
The fossil forming the subject of the present note was discovered in October, 1940, in a quarry on the road leading from the left bank of the Vailala River (Papua, Gulf Division) near the mouth of Kariava Creek to the drilling site or Australasian Petroleum Company's first exploration well in Papua. The fossil was sent to Port Moresby and handed to the writer by Dr. K. Washington Gray, chief geologist to Australasian Petroleum Company. The quarry was situated 800 feet E. 7° S. from the mouth of Kariava Creek. The writer visited the locality in May, 1941. No further vertebrate fossils were found, but mollusca, corals and foraminifera occur in the same beds the age of which is Upper Miocene.
