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Nakonanectes

Say it: nah-KOH-nan-EK-teez

Name means: “Nakona swimmer”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Nakonanectes was a plesiosaur, a marine reptile that lived in the sea, not a dinosaur. It had a shorter neck than most of its relatives, making it a special kind of elasmosaurid.1 2

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Montana, USA3 1

Food

Meat3

Length

5.1 to 5.6 m1 2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 3 bicycles in a rowas long as 31 bananas end to end

How big was Nakonanectes compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Nakonanectes had only 39 to 42 neck bones, while many other elasmosaurids had over 70.1 2

It was one of the smallest adult elasmosaurids ever found, measuring only 5.1 to 5.6 metres long.1 2

The fossil was discovered in 2010 by a hunter named David Bradt in a canyon in Montana.1

Nakonanectes lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs.3

Its skull was found nearly complete, which is rare for elasmosaurid fossils.1 2

Short-necked elasmosaurids like Nakonanectes evolved from long-necked ancestors in different parts of the world.1 2

AI-made picture of Nakonanectes — An AI-made picture of how Nakonanectes might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Nakonanectes
Named by: Serratos et al. 20174
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Elasmosauridae4
Classification: Plesiosauria > Elasmosauridae > Sauropterygia4
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)4
Rock formations: Bearpaw Shale4
Countries: USA4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Nakonanectes was named in 2017 by Danielle Serratos, Patrick Druckenmiller, and Roger Benson. The fossil was found in 2010 by hunter David Bradt in the Bearpaw Shale of Montana, USA.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Nakonanectes belongs to the Styxosaurinae or Elasmosaurinae group.3

Where the facts come from

Nakonanectes (en.wikipedia.org)
A New Elasmosaurid (Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from the Bearpaw Shale (Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian) of Montana Demonstrates Multiple Evolutionary Reductions of Neck Length Within Elasmosauridae (bioone.org)
paleobiodb.org (paleobiodb.org)
Nakonanectes in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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