''Wunyelfia'' is a genus of

elasmosaurid Elasmosauridae is an extinct family of plesiosaurs, often called elasmosaurs. They had the longest necks of the plesiosaurs and existed from the Hauterivian to the Maastrichtian stages of the Cretaceous, and represented one of the two groups of p ...

plesiosaur The Plesiosauria (; Greek: πλησίος, ''plesios'', meaning "near to" and ''sauros'', meaning "lizard") or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared ...

, a type of long-necked marine reptile, that lived in the oceans of

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. It contains one species, ''W. maulensis''.

Etymology

The generic name, meant to be pronounced as "goo-niel-fiah", comes from ''Wüñelfe'', the

Mapudungun Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...

name for the planet

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

, also seen as a mystic symbol of the flower of the ''Foye'', a sacred tree, and a representation of the Mapuche freedom and untamed spirit. The specific name comes from the

Región del Maule The Maule Region ( es, Región del Maule, ) is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. Its capital is Talca. The region derives its name from the Maule River which, running westward from the Andes, bisects the region and spans a ...

of Chile where it was found.

Description

''Wunyelfia'' belongs to the elasmosaurid subfamily

Aristonectinae Aristonectinae is a clade of plesiosaurs in the family Elasmosauridae. It includes the Late Cretaceous plesiosaurs ''Aristonectes'' and ''Kaiwhekea'', traditionally grouped with the Late Jurassic ''Tatenectes'' and ''Kimmerosaurus'' in the family ...

and come from the

Quiriquina Formation The Quiriquina Formation is a geological formation in Chile whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. ...

.Quiriquina
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...

.org The holotype SGO.PV.6507 is an associated postcranial remains of a single individual, including the atlas-axis, five anteriormost cervical vertebrae, an isolated mid cervical centrum, the posteriormost cervical centrum, two successive pectoral centra (sensu Sachs et al., 2013), thirteen dorsal vertebrae, three sacral centra, ten caudal centra, most of both coracoids, mid portion of the interclavicular arch, symphyseal portion of left pubis, the acetabular portion of right pubis and the ventral part of the left ilium.

References

Late Cretaceous plesiosaurs Maastrichtian life Fossils of Chile Elasmosaurids Cretaceous reptiles of South America Fossil taxa described in 2020 Sauropterygian genera {{Plesiosaur-stub