Terminonatator
| Terminonatator Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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Life restoration
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | †Sauropterygia |
| Order: | †Plesiosauria |
| Family: | †Elasmosauridae |
| Genus: | †Terminonatator Sato, 2003 |
| Species: | †T. ponteixensis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Terminonatator ponteixensis Sato, 2003
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Terminonatator (meaning "last swimmer") is a genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is known from a skull and partial skeleton from a young adult, found in the Campanian-age Bearpaw Formation near Notukeu Creek in Ponteix. Terminonatator is currently one of the youngest plesiosaurs from the Western Interior Seaway.
Description
Terminonatator is based on RSM P2414.1, a skull and partially articulated incomplete skeleton found high in the Bearpaw Formation. Tamaki Sato, who named and described the specimen in 2003, used the genus name to emphasize its lateness in the fossil record, and the species epithet ponteixensis for Ponteix. Only one species has been described: the type species T. ponteixensis.[1]
RSM P2414.1 appears to represent an adult, because the
The skull as preserved is 26.8 cm (10.6 in) long, but is broken near the
The backbone is incomplete, but 51 neck, 17 back, four
Terminonatator is significant because of its late age, its inclusion of a skull with most of a skeleton, and its nature as an elasmosaurid (the remains of short-necked plesiosaurs are more common in comparable rocks in Canada). The remains of comparable elasmosaurids are poorly preserved, and/or have poorly described skulls, making comparisons of this genus to other elasmosaurids difficult at this time.[1]
