Kawanectes
Name:
Kawanectes
(Kawas swimmer).
Phonetic: Ka-wah-nek-teez.
Named By: J. P. O'Gorman - 2016.
Synonyms: Trinacromerum lafquenianum.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria, Elasmosauridae.
Species: K. lafquenianum
(type).
Diet: Piscivore.
Size: Roughly estimated to be about 3.8 meters
long.
Known locations: Argentina, Rio Negro Province
- Allen Formation.
Time period: Late Campanian/Early Maastrichtian of
the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial skeleton.
Originally
described as a species of the polycotylid plesiosaur
Trinacomerum,
T. lafquenianum was later re-described as a
distinct genus of short
necked elasmosaurid plesiosaur. Kawanectes is
similar to the larger
Vegasaurus.
Because the bones in Kawanectes have complete
fusion in
them, we can tell that Kawanectes was fully grown
at the time of
death, and thus cannot be the younger form of Vegasaurus.
Further reading
- A small body sized non-aristonectine elasmosaurid
(Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from the Late Cretaceous of
Patagonia with comments on the relationships of the patagonian and
antarctic elasmosaurids. - Ameghiniana 53(3):245-268. -
J. P. O'Gorman - 2016.
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