Kawanectes

Kawanectes
Temporal range: Late Campanian to Early Maastrichtian
~72 Ma
Life restoration
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Sauropterygia
Order: Plesiosauria
Family: Elasmosauridae
Genus: Kawanectes
O'Gorman 2016
Species:
K. lafquenianum
Binomial name
Kawanectes lafquenianum
(Gasparini & Goñi 1985)
Synonyms
  • Trinacromerum lafquenianum (Gasparini & Goñi 1985) (original name)

Kawanectes (meaning "Kawas swimmer") is a genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur, a type of long-necked marine reptile, that lived in the marginal marine (probably estuarine) environment of Late Cretaceous Patagonia. It contains one species, K. lafquenianum, described in 2016 by O'Gorman.[1]

  1. ^ O'Gorman, J.P. (2016). "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. doi:10.5710/AMGH.29.11.2015.2928. S2CID 133139689.