Aristonectes parvidens, one of the weirdest elasmosaur ever to exist. When you think of elasmosaur, you think of marine reptiles with extremely long neck, small head, short body and four flippers. Aristonectes seemed to go against that direction by having basically flattened body, ridiculously long flippers, moderately sized neck, horizontal fluke like a whale and relatively bigger head with weird, outward-projecting tooth used to filter foods. In fact all aristonectines are just weird.
Elasmosaurids are some of my favourite marine reptiles. Here's my fav, Aristonectes parvidens, looking to hoover up some tasty euphausiids. If only it realised something's been noticing it.
#aristonectes #elasmosaur #plesiosaur #paleontology #paleoart #sciart
