Marie-Celine Buchy

Academic paper

Carolinea

63

2005

5-28

The subcomplete skeleton of an elasmosaurid plesio- saur recently acquired by the Staatliches Museum fur Naturkunde Karlsruhe (State Museum of Natural His- tory in Karlsruhe) is described. The specimen comes from the early Turonian of the Goulmima region, Mo- rocco, and represents one of the most complete elas- mosaurs known in the world. Owing to the present uncertainties about elasmosaurs systematics, it is referred mainly on stratigraphical grounds to a new species of the genus Libonectes. Some of the bones of the holotype (e.g. cervical vertebrae, ulna) show an unusual type of preservation that might indicate an old-age related pathology. Some aspects of elasmo- saurs anatomy suggest non obligatory feeding upon sea floor invertebrates.

English