Kawanectes

Kawanectes is one of the smallest elasmosaurids ever found, with an adult body length of only 3.8 to 4.2 metres (12 to 14 feet).1

Its name comes from the Kawas Sea, an ancient ocean that covered Patagonia during the Late Cretaceous.1

One specimen of Kawanectes was found with 389 gastroliths, or stomach stones, which may have helped it digest food or control buoyancy.1

Kawanectes had a high humerus-to-femur length ratio of about 1.2, meaning its upper arm bone was longer than its thigh bone, which is unusual among elasmosaurids.1

Scientists think Kawanectes may have been sexually dimorphic, with females possibly larger than males.1

Kawanectes lived in a marginal marine environment, probably an estuary, not the open ocean, and it was smaller than open-ocean plesiosaurs.1