Albertonectes

Albertonectes Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 73.5 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
The tail vertebrae of the holotype specimen of Albertonectes vanderveldei
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	†Sauropterygia
Order:	†Plesiosauria
Family:	†Elasmosauridae
Genus:	†Albertonectes Kubo et al., 2012
Type species
†Albertonectes vanderveldei Kubo et al., 2012

Albertonectes is an extinct genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur known from the Late Cretaceous (middle upper Campanian stage) Bearpaw Formation of Alberta, Canada. It contains a single species, Albertonectes vanderveldei. Albertonectes is the longest elasmosaur, and more generally plesiosaur, known to date both in neck and total body length.

Albertonectes is known solely from the holotype TMP 2007.011.0001, a complete well preserved postcranial skeleton housed at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta. Elements include all 132 vertebrae from the atlas-axis complex to fused tip of the tail vertebrae, complete pectoral and incomplete pelvic girdles, almost complete forelimbs and hindlimbs, disarticulated ribs, a gastralium, and at least 97 associated gastroliths. TMP 2007.011.0001 was discovered during mining for gem-quality ammonite shell called Ammolite by Korite International Ltd. about 150 meters south of the St. Mary River near Lethbridge in southern Alberta. The specimen was excavated in a nearly completely articulated state from dark gray claystone in a concretionary horizon about 15 m above the base of the Bearpaw Formation and about 2 m below an ash bed known by mine workers as the "10 inch bentonite". Collected from the lower part of Muddy Unit 1 of the St. Mary River Section, just below the lowest known local occurrence of Baculites compressus in the formation, the specimen is not younger than about 73.5 million years old and approximately of that age, thus dating to the middle of the upper Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. The discovery of Albertonectes marks a new record in both neck and total body length among known elasmosaurs, at 11.2 meter in postcranial body length with a 7-meter neck.