Lagenanectes

Lagenanectes is a genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the Lower Cretaceous, found in Lower Saxony, Germany. The only species, Lagenanectes richterae, was first described in 2017, and is regarded as one of the best-preserved plesiosaur fossils from this geological age in Europe. Lagenanectes is one of the earliest elasmosaurids. The holotype is an incomplete skeleton, comprising large parts of the skull, some neck and tail vertebrae as well as ribs and part of the limbs. A length of about 8 meters (26 feet) has been estimated.

== Discovery and naming == left|thumb|276x276px|Skeletal diagram The well-preserved holotype specimen of Lagenanectes richterae (specimen number BGR Ma 13328) was found in the disused Moorberg clay pit near Sarstedt by private collectors in 1964. The exact horizon is unknown (the age of the fossils might be lower Hauterivian to lower Barremian, but most probably is upper Hauterivian). The fossils were later given to the Geological Survey at Hannover, where Professor Sickenberg identified them as elasmosaurid remains. They have subsequently been transferred to the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hannover, where part of the specimen is now on display. However, it was not until some 50 years later, in 2017, that Sven Sachs, Jahn J. Hornung and Benjamin P. Kear studied the fossil in detail and erected Lagenanectes as a new, monotypic genus.