Albertonectes

Albertonectes, artistic live presentation

• Bearpaw Formation in Alberta (Canada)

Albertonectes is a Plesiosauriergattung who lived in the Upper Cretaceous. The genus includes Albertonectes vanderveldei with a single known species, the basis of an almost perfectly preserved fossil skeleton, the skull missing only in 2012, was first described. Albertonectes had the highest number of cervical vertebrae among all known vertebrates, and the body in relation to the longest neck of all plesiosaurs.

The fossil was deposited in the Bearpaw Formation, which is dated to the late Campanian to lower Maastrichtian and consists of deposits of the Western Interior Seaway, and was found in the extraction of Ammolite at Lethbridge in southern Alberta. Teeth marks on the coracoid bone, two scales of a shark of the genus Squalicorax and small, related disorders of the skeleton show that sharks ate at the carcass. The Style epithet was vanderveldei awarded in honor of Rene Vandervelde, who founded the the Ammolite degradation be operated company, without whose work the fossil would never have been found.

Features

The postcranial skeleton almost completely preserved comprises 132 vertebrae from the atlas and axis to the grown-together last caudal vertebrae, the shoulder girdle, an incomplete pool, almost complete front and rear limbs disarticulated ribs (outside of the original anatomical grouping), an abdominal rib and 97 gastroliths. The animal had a total of 11.2 meters long, which was attributable to the cervical vertebrae of 76 based neck seven meters (62 %). In addition to the high number of cervical vertebrae differ lateral longitudinal ridges on the body located toward cervical vertebrae, a relatively broad clavicle, a tapering anterior projection on the middle symphysis of the coracoid bone ( original bones in the shoulder girdle ), an anterolateral (front and side) edge of the pubic bone that coalesced last caudal vertebrae and a relatively slender humerus Albertonectes from other plesiosaurs. The gastroliths have a diameter of one to 13.5 cm. An analysis of their form showed that most were taken near a beach.

System

A preliminary phylogenetic analysis presented Albertonectes in a clade of long-necked Elasmosauriden from the Late Cretaceous period. Its closest relatives include Aristonectes, Styxosaurus, Terminonatator and Thalassomedon, but not Elasmosaurus which has the second highest number of cervical vertebrae (72).