Chubutinectes

Chubutinectes lived about 67 million years ago, near the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs.1

It is one of the few plesiosaurs from the Southern Hemisphere whose skeleton after the head is well known.1

Its bones were found in the La Colonia Formation, which was once a warm, shallow sea with limited water flow.1

Scientists used tiny fossils called microfossils to figure out how old the rocks were where Chubutinectes was found.1

Chubutinectes had a special bone in its shoulder called a coracoid with a heart-shaped hole, which helped scientists tell it apart from other plesiosaurs.1

Its arm bone, the humerus, had a back part that ended in an extra bump, a unique feature.1