Libonectes

Libonectes is an extinct genus of sauropterygian reptile belonging to the plesiosaur order. It is known from specimens found in the Britton Formation of Texas (USA) and the Akrabou Formation of Morocco, which have been dated to the lower Turonian stage of the late Cretaceous period.

Libonectes is an extinct genus of sauropterygian reptile belonging to the plesiosaur order. It is known from specimens found in the Britton Formation of Texas (USA) and the Akrabou Formation of Morocco, which have been dated to the lower Turonian stage of the late Cretaceous period. ==Description== Libonectes was a medium-sized plesiosaur, with the complete specimen (SMNK-PAL 3978) measuring long. The type specimen belonged to an individual with a neck measuring long. The animal was very similar to the related Thalassomedon, though the structure of the neck vertebrae was different, with taller neural spines and longer supporting processes of the bone, and its nostrils were slightly closer to the tip of the skull. The type specimen of L. morgani contains the best preserved elasmosaurid skull known as well as gastroliths. A shoulder girdle and flippers were also found but were apparently discarded at some point atter 1962, along with the rear fourteen neck vertebrae of which only forty-eight remain. The specimen was originally named Elasmosaurus morgani by Welles in 1949, but it was reclassified to its own genus by Carpenter in 1997. A second species, L. atlasense, was named in 2005 from deposits in Morocco, but a 2017 redescription of the material recognized it as a junior synonym of L. morgani. ==See also== List of plesiosaur genera Timeline of plesiosaur research ==References==

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