Hastanectes valdensis

Hastanectes is an extinct genus of a plesiosaurian with possible pliosaurid affinities known from the Early Cretaceous Wadhurst Clay Formation of the United Kingdom. It contains a single species, Hastanectes valdensis, which was originally thought to be a species of Cimoliasaurus.

Hastanectes valdensis

Connor Ashbridge · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
HastanectesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Plesiosauria

Time the record covers

At most 6.5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 139.1 Mya and 132.6 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 6 of 6 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous139–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–138 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences138–138 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences138–138 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences138–138 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences138–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–137 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences137–137 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences137–136 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences136–136 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences136–136 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences136–136 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences136–135 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences135–135 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences135–135 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences135–135 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences135–134 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences134–134 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences134–134 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences134–134 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences134–133 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences133–133 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences133–133 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences133–133 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences139.6 Mya132.1 Mya

6 occurrences of Hastanectes valdensis on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

6 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Wadhurst Clay — 50.90°N, 0.51°EWadhurst Clay — 50.85°N, 0.57°EWadhurst Clay — 51.15°N, 0.40°EBückeberg — 52.26°N, 7.03°E

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The named rock units Hastanectes valdensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Hastanectes valdensis and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Hastanectes valdensis and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

34 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Hastanectes valdensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 6 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Hastanectes valdensis

Credit
Connor Ashbridge
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hastanectes valdensis was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itHastanectes through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Lydekker 1889)