Libonectes

File:New Libonectes.jpgThe prefix "libo" comes from Greek (lips), and means "southern (wind)," translated to English. "Nectes," the suffix, is also from Greek (nektes), and translates to "swimmer." In its entirety, Libonectes can be interpreted as "southern swimmer."{{Cite web|title=Libonectes dinosaur|url=http://www.dinosaurfact.net/Marine/Libonectes.php|access-date=2021-07-03|website=www.dinosaurfact.net}} Libonectes was an elasmosaurid plesiosaur, with many specimens unearthed in southern parts of North America{{Cite web|title=Libonectes morgani|url=https://www.sachspal.de/libonectes/|access-date=2021-07-03|website=Sachs Vertebrate Palaeontology|language=en-US}}- as a result, it was labeled with such a name as described in the preceding sentence. Charles Gill Morgan is credited with the acquiring and preparation of the first Libonectes fossils, found by tenant farmer T.W. Tidwell in the late 1930s, and it was for this reason that morgani was chosen as the specific name part of its binomial name.{{Cite journal|last=Welles|first=Samuel|date=1949|title=A new elasmosaur from the Eagle Ford Shale of Texas|url=https://sites.smu.edu/shulermuseum/publication_pdfs/fondren_sci/v1-Welles1949.pdf|journal=Fondren Science Series}}

Libonectes was a medium-sized plesiosaur, with the complete specimen (SMNK-PAL 3978) measuring {{convert|7.2|m|ft}} long. The type specimen belonged to an individual with a neck measuring {{convert|5.06|m}} long.{{cite journal | first1 = J.P. | last1 = O'Gorman | title = A Small Body Sized Non-Aristonectine Elasmosaurid (Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia with Comments on the Relationships of the Patagonian and Antarctic Elasmosaurids | journal = Ameghiniana | volume = 53 | issue = 3 | pages = 245–268 | doi = 10.5710/AMGH.29.11.2015.2928 | year = 2016| s2cid = 133139689 | url = http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/108247 | hdl = 11336/54311 | hdl-access = free }} The animal was very similar to the related Thalassomedon, though the structure of the neck vertebrae was different, with taller neural spines and longer supporting processes of the bone, and its nostrils were slightly closer to the tip of the skull. The type specimen of L. morgani contains the best preserved elasmosaurid skull known as well as gastroliths. A shoulder girdle and flippers were also found but were apparently discarded at some point atter 1962,Carpenter, K. (1999). "Revision of North American elasmosaurs from the Cretaceous of the western interior." Paludicola, 2(2): 148-173. along with the rear fourteen neck vertebrae of which only forty-eight remain.

The specimen was originally named Elasmosaurus morgani by Welles in 1949, but it was reclassified to its own genus by Carpenter in 1997. A second species, L. atlasense, was named in 2005 from deposits in Morocco, but a 2017 redescription of the material recognized it as a junior synonym of L. morgani.{{cite journal | last1 = Sachs | first1 = S. | last2 = Kear | first2 = B.P. | title = Redescription of the elasmosaurid plesiosaurian Libonectes atlasense from the Upper Cretaceous of Morocco | journal = Cretaceous Research | volume = 74 | pages = 205–222 | date = 2017 | doi = 10.1016/j.cretres.2017.02.017 | bibcode = 2017CrRes..74..205S }}

The possible carnivorous nature of Libonectes is suggested by its dental layout, however, the presence of gastroliths inside some known fossils feasibly indicates an omnivorous lifestyle (though paleontological investigation notes that plesiosaurs may have used gastroliths in buoyancy control{{Cite web|date=2018-07-22|title=Diet and senses|url=https://plesiosauria.com/diet/|access-date=2021-07-03|website=Plesiosaur Directory|language=en-US}}). The presence of these gastroliths could also point to the possibility that Libonectes swallowed prey items whole. Libonectes most likely hunted in deep waters, perhaps eating small fish and ammonites, as it is thought that its bulk prevented the creature from frequenting shallow waters.{{Cite journal|last1=Araújo|first1=Ricardo|last2=Polcyn|first2=Michael J.|date=2013-04-22|title=A biomechanical analysis of the skull and adductor chamber muscles in the Late Cretaceous Plesiosaur Libonectes|url=https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2013/418-plesiosaur-mastication|journal=Palaeontologia Electronica|language=English|volume=16|issue=2|pages=1–25|doi=10.26879/287|issn=1094-8074|doi-access=free}} This reptile is also suspected to have used its large size to trap prey, as a result of its slow swimming speed.

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• [https://www.sachspal.de/libonectes/ Libonectes morgani]. Sachs Vertebrate Palaeontology Research.

{{Plesiosauria|Plesiosauroidea}}

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Category:Late Cretaceous plesiosaurs of North America

Category:Elasmosauridae

Category:Fossil taxa described in 1997

Category:Taxa named by Kenneth Carpenter

Category:Sauropterygian genera

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