Dino card No. 1759 of 2,027

Tatenectes

Say it: tat-en-EK-teez

Name means: “Tate diver, honoring Marion and Inez Tate who founded the Tate Museum in Casper, Wyoming”1

Ate: MeatPlesiosaursLate JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Tatenectes was a small plesiosaur that lived in a shallow sea that covered much of North America during the Jurassic Period. It had a flattened, boxy body and a long neck, and it swam using four flippers like paddles.1

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

Lived

162 to 155 million years ago3

Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Wyoming, USA, in the Redwater Shale Member of the Sundance Formation1 3

Food

Meat1

Length

2 to 3 m1

estimates vary; about 2 to 3 meters

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 dogs nose to tailas long as 17 bananas end to end

How big was Tatenectes compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Tatenectes had a very unusual body shape for a plesiosaur: its torso was flattened and boxy, and its belly ribs were thickened, which helped it stay stable in turbulent water.1

The first fossil of Tatenectes was described in 1900 by Wilbur Clinton Knight, who thought it was a species of Cimoliosaurus. That original specimen has since been lost.1

Tatenectes lived in the Sundance Sea, a shallow inland sea that was less than 40 meters (130 feet) deep and covered parts of western North America during the Jurassic.1

Its teeth were small and thin, with long roots and low enamel ridges, perfect for catching slippery prey like fish and squid.1

Tatenectes shared its sea home with other marine reptiles, including the plesiosaur Pantosaurus and the large pliosaur Megalneusaurus.1

Scientists think Tatenectes could have used lung deflation to help it dive, just like some modern sea turtles do.1

AI-made picture of Tatenectes — An AI-made picture of how Tatenectes 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: Tatenectes
Named by: O'Keefe and Wahl 20033
Group: Plesiosaurs
Family / clade: Cryptoclididae3
Classification: Plesiosauria > Sauropterygia3
Age of the rocks: 162 to 155 million years (Oxfordian)3
Rock formations: Sundance3
Countries: USA3
Fossil records: 3 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first fossil was described by Wilbur Clinton Knight in 1900 as a new species of Cimoliosaurus. In 2003, F. Robin O'Keefe and William Wahl Jr. gave it its own genus, Tatenectes, based on a new specimen found in Wyoming.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether the gastroliths (stomach stones) found in plesiosaurs like Tatenectes were used for ballast, digestion, or something else.1

Where the facts come from

Tatenectes (en.wikipedia.org)
"Preliminary Report on the Osteology and Relationships of a New Aberran" by F. Robin O’Keefe and William Wahl Jr. (mds.marshall.edu)
Tatenectes in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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