Archaeonectrus

Name: Archaeonectrus ‭(‬Old swimmer‭)‬.
Phonetic: Ar-kay-oh-nek-trus.
Named By: N.I.‭ ‬Novozhilov‭ ‬-‭ ‬1964.
Synonyms: Plesiosaurus rostratus.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Sauropterygia,‭ ‬Plesiosauria,‭ ‬Pliosauridae‭, Rhomaleosauridae.
Species: A.‭ ‬rostratus‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Diet: Piscivore.
Size: About 3.67‭ ‬meters long.
Known locations: England.
Time period: Sinemurian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Almost complete.

       Originally described as a species of Plesiosaurus by Richard Owen in‭ ‬1865,‭ ‬it was identified as a distinct genus just under a hundred years later in‭ ‬1964.‭ ‬Archaeonectrus is now regarded as a rhomaleosaurid pliosaur, and would have been a predator of other marine organisms.

Further reading
- A monograph of the fossil Reptilia of the Liassic formations. Part I, Sauropterygia. - Palaeontographical Soceity Monographs 17(75):1-40. - Richard Owen - 1865.
- A new elasmosaurid plesiosaurian from the Early Cretaceous of Russia marks an early attempt at neck elongation (supplement). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 192 (4): 1167–1194. - Valentin Fischer, Nikolay G. Zverkov, Maxim S. Arkhangelsky, Ilya M. Stenshin, Ivan V. Blagovetshensky & Gleb N. Uspensky - 2020.

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