Tatenectes
Name:
Tatenectes
(Tate swimmer?).
Phonetic: Tate-nes-tes.
Named By: O'Keefe and Wahl - 2003.
Synonyms: Cimoliasaurus laramiensis,
Tricleidus laramiensis.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria, Cryptoclididae, Aristonectidae.
Species: T. laramiensis
(type).
Diet: Piscivore.
Size: Around 2 to 3 meters long.
Known locations: USA, Wyoming - Sundance
Formation.
Time period: Oxfordian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial skeletal remains and
elements of the skull.
Fossils
pertaining to Tatenectes were originally assigned
as a species of
Cimoliasaurus
(C. laramiensis) by W. C. Knight in
1900.
Then in 1912 they were moved over to Tricliedus
(as T.
laramiensis) by Mehl. Then in 2003 fossils
pertaining to this
species were established as a new genus by O'Keefe and Wahl. However
the original holotype fossils used by knight to name C.
laramiensis
are now lost and neotypes of partial skeletons (UW 12543
& UW 24801) are now the established base of this genus.
Tatenectes
was a small plesiosaur with a body proportionately flatter than many
other genera. This may have been an environmental adaptation since
the Sundance Formation is interpreted as being the bed of a shallow sea
during the Jurassic, an area that was probably not suitable for large
plesiosaur forms. Tatenectes is usually
classified within the
Cryptoclididae group of plesiosaurs (those like Cryptociedus),
however there is also occasionally placement within the
Aristonectidae (those similar to Aristonectes)
by some researchers.
Further reading
- Preliminary report on the osteology and relationships of a new
aberrant cryptocleidoid plesiosaur from the Sundance Formation,
Wyoming. - Paludicola 4(2):48-68. - F. R. O'Keefe & W. Wahl Jr.
- 2003.
- Osteology Of The cryptoclidoid plesiosaur Tatenectes
laramiensis,
with comments on the taxonomic status of the Cimoliasauridae. Journal
of Vertebrate Paleontology. 29 (1): 48–57. - F. Robin O'Keefe &
Hallie P. Street - 2009.
- Evidence of pachyostosis in the cryptocleidoid plesiosaur Tatenectes
laramiensis from the Sundance Formation of Wyoming. - Journal
of
Vertebrate Paleontology. 30 (4): 1279–1282. - Hallie P. Street
& F. Robin O’Keefe - 2010.
- A new skeleton of the cryptoclidid plesiosaur Tatenectes
laramiensis
reveals a novel body shape among plesiosaurs. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology. 31 (2): 330–339. - F. Robin O'Keefe, Hallie P. Street,
Benjamin C. Wilhelm, Courtney D. Richards & Helen Zhu - 2011.
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