Fluvionectes
Fluvionectes was a long-necked marine reptile that swam in rivers and estuaries, not the open ocean. It was a type of plesiosaur called an elasmosaur, and it hunted fish and other prey in the water.1
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Fun facts
Fluvionectes is one of the few plesiosaurs found in non-marine rocks, meaning it lived in rivers and estuaries, not the open ocean.1
The holotype skeleton was found disarticulated, scattered over an area of about 2.5 square metres, with only two rib bones still connected.1
Fluvionectes had 22 dorsal vertebrae, which is a unique feature that helps scientists identify it as a new species.1
The name Fluvionectes comes from Latin and Greek words meaning 'river swimmer', because it lived in rivers.1
The species name sloanae honours Donna Sloan, who discovered the holotype and worked as a scientific illustrator at the Royal Tyrrell Museum.1
Fluvionectes was smaller than many other elasmosaurids that lived in the ocean, which might be because it lived in rivers.1
Most asked questions about Fluvionectes
?How big was Fluvionectes?
About 5 to 5.2 metres (16 to 17 ft) long for the holotype, and the largest known specimen may have reached 7 metres (23 ft).23
?What did Fluvionectes eat?
It hunted fish and other vertebrates in the water, using its slender tooth and powerful flippers to catch prey.4
?Where did Fluvionectes live?
It lived in rivers and estuaries (brackish water) in what is now Alberta, Canada, not in the open ocean like most other elasmosaurs.23
?Is Fluvionectes a dinosaur?
No, it is a plesiosaur, a type of marine reptile that lived in the water during the time of dinosaurs.2
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Myth buster
Myth: Some people think all plesiosaurs lived only in the ocean.
Truth: Fluvionectes shows that some plesiosaurs lived in rivers and estuaries, not just the open sea.1
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Fluvionectes
- Named by
- Campbell et al. 20215
- Group
- Plesiosaurs
- Family / clade
- Elasmosauridae5
- Classification
- Plesiosauria > Elasmosauridae > Sauropterygia5
- Age of the rocks
- 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)5
- Rock formations
- Dinosaur Park5
- Countries
- Canada5
- Fossil records
- 6 in the Paleobiology Database5
- Discovery
- The holotype was discovered by Donna Sloan in the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada. It was named by Campbell and colleagues in 2021.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are still debating why Fluvionectes was smaller than ocean-living elasmosaurids, and whether it spent its whole life in rivers or moved between fresh and salt water.1
Where the facts come from
- PeerJ A new elasmosaurid (Sauropterygia: Plesiosauria) from the non-marine to paralic Dinosaur Park Formation of southern Alberta, Canada (peerj.com)
- Fluvionectes (en.wikipedia.org)
- A new elasmosaurid (Sauropterygia: Plesiosauria) from the non-marine to paralic Dinosaur Park Formation of southern Alberta, Canada (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- New Late Cretaceous Marine Reptile publication by M. Ryan and J. Campbell | Department of Earth Sciences (earthsci.carleton.ca)
- Fluvionectes in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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