Fluvionectes
| Fluvionectes Temporal range: Campanian
~ | |
|---|---|
| File:Fluvionectes with gastroliths.png | |
| Holotype with gastroliths | |
| Scientific classification Edit this classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | †Sauropterygia |
| Order: | †Plesiosauria |
| Superfamily: | †Plesiosauroidea |
| Family: | †Elasmosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Styxosaurinae |
| Genus: | †Fluvionectes Campbell et al., 2021 |
| Species: | †F. sloanae
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Fluvionectes sloanae Campbell et al., 2021
| |
Fluvionectes (meaning "river swimmer", from both Latin and Greek) is a genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur found in the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada.[1]
Description
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The holotype specimen of Fluvionectes is a partial skeleton preserving an osteologically mature, likely a young adult individual that would have reached 5–5.2 m (16–17 ft) long and weighed 392 kilograms (864 lb).[1][2] A more mature, larger, but more fragmentary specimen (TMP 2009.037.0007) is also known, consisting of a partial rib and gastralium, and left humerus, indicating that this taxon may have reached 7 m (23 ft) in maximum body length. A number of other fragmentary specimens are also known.[1]
The holotype skeleton had 76 gastroliths, largely disc-shaped stones. All were composed of black chert and grey quartzite, the largest of which weighed 15.3 grams.[1][2]
Classification
[edit | edit source]The describers placed Fluvionectes in Elasmosauridae, in a clade with Albertonectes, Nakonanectes, Styxosaurus, and Terminonatator, which by definition places it in the Elasmosaurinae subfamily.[1]
Palaeoecology
[edit | edit source]Fluvionectes appears to have been a freshwater and brackish water animal based on its discovery from a non-marine to paralic sedimentary unit. Both the holotype and the largest specimen (TMP 2009.037.0007) were found in brackish estuarine deposits, but a number of other specimens were found in nearby freshwater fluvial deposits. This is significantly different in contrast to most elasmosaurs which were oceanic.[1]
Other fossils associated with the holotype specimen included the turtle Kimurachelys slobodae and the rhinobatoid ray Myledaphus. Three dinoflagellates were also found, suggesting a marine influenced environment, although their low abundance and diversity suggests that it was not an open-marine environment.[1]
The holotype was discovered alongside many pieces of coalified wood, which is interpreted as the carcass having been caught in a log jam.[2]
Gallery
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_and_hindlimb_(K)_elements_of_holotype_of_Fluvionectes_sloanae.png){kind=link}
References
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