Jucha

Jucha is an extinct genus of plesiosaur found in the Hauterivian (Early Cretaceous) Klimovka Formation of Russia. The type species, J. squalea, was one of the basalmost and oldest definitive elasmosaurs known to date.

==Discovery and naming== The holotype specimen, UPM 2756/1-53, housed on display at the Undorov Pleontological Museum, was discovered in 2007 in a layer of the Klimovka Formation in the vicinity of the Slantsevy Rudnik village near Ulyanovsk, European Russia. It consists of 17 cervical vertebrae, nine dorsal vertebrae and one isolated neural spine, four caudal vertebrae, and parts of the forelimbs and hindlimbs.