Lagenanectes
Name:
Lagenanectes
(Leine swimmer).
Phonetic: Lah-gen-ah-nek-teez.
Named By: Sven Sachs, Jahn J. Hornung &
Benjamin P. Kear - 2017.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria, Elasmosauridae.
Species: L. richterae
(type).
Diet: Piscivore.
Size: Roughly estimated at about 8 meters long.
Known locations: Germany.
Time period: Hauterivian/possibly Barremian
Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and partial
post cranial skeletal remains.
The
fossils of Lagenanectes languished in a museum for
over fifty years
before they were finally named as belonging to a distinct genus of
plesiosaur.
Lagenanectes is a genus of what is known as an
elasmosaurid plesiosaur. Elasmosaurids were notably different to the
earlier plesiosaurs of the Jurassic in that they had necks that were in
proportion to their body, much longer than their ancestors. The
identification of such a plesiosaur from a Hauterivian/Barremian aged
fossil deposit means that Lagenanectes is one of
the oldest
elasmosaurid plesiosaurs that we know about. Most other elasmosaurid
plesiosaur are known from later periods in the Cretaceous.
Further reading
- A new basal elasmosaurid (Sauropterygia: Plesiosauria) from
the Lower Cretaceous of Germany. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology. - Sven Sachs, Jahn J. Hornung &
Benjamin P. Kear - 2017.
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