🦕 Prehistoric World Map

Kawanectes fossil map

Where fossils of Kawanectes have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 66 million years ago and on today’s map.

Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 66 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →

Kawanectes
Image: Connor Ashbridge, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
GroupPlesiosaurs & kin
Lived72.2–66 million years ago (Maastrichtian)
PeriodsCretaceous
FamilyElasmosauridae
Named byO'Gorman 2016
Fossil records4 occurrences at 4 locations (PBDB)
Found inArgentina
Rock formationsLa Colonia, Allen

About Kawanectes

Kawanectes (meaning "Kawas swimmer") is an extinct genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur, a type of long-necked marine reptile, that lived in the marginal marine, probably estuarine, environment of Late Cretaceous Patagonia. The genus contains a single species, Kawanectes lafquenianus, described in 2016 by José P. O'Gorman.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Kawanectes (revision 1377520414), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 23 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q28432499.

More plesiosaurs & kin