Wunyelfia is an extinct genus of elasmosaurid that lived in Chile during the Late Cretaceous.
History[]
The specimen was first recovered by a private collector excavation in the 1990s, where it was recovered by a museum in the 2010s.
Description[]
Credit: Connor Ashbridge on the Wikimedia Commons.
Wunyelfia is known from a near-adult postcranial skeleton. It includes: an axis-atlas, five cervical vertebrae, neural spines, several cervical and trunk centra, ribs, gastralia, causal centra and part of the pelvic girdle. The cervical central have the same vertebral lengths as adult aristonectinae. Their neural spines are recurved at the rostrum, and constricted at their bases. The axis-atlas preserved in other aristonectines is consistent with Wunyelfia, especially elasmosaurs of the genus Aristonectes and the genus Alexandronectes. The specimen possesses anterior cervical vertebrae that differ from Kaiwekea.
Classification[]
Wunyelfia is the second known member of the clade Aristonectinae. Phylogenetic positioning place Wunyelfia as the basalmost member of the group, which is consistent with the genus' unique morphology.