Recovering lost time in Syria: New Late Cretaceous (Coniacian-Santonian) elasmosaurid remains from the Palmyrides mountain chain

Despite its relatively limited vertebrate fossil record, Syria currently records the largest number of documented Mesozoic marine reptile occurrences among the Middle Eastern countries. In particular, the phosphatic deposits of the Palmyrides mountain chain have yielded fossils of aquatic squamates, bothremydid and chelonioid marine turtles, as well as elasmosaurid plesiosaurs. Nevertheless, new discoveries have not been reported for the last two decades. Here, we describe the partial skeleton of an elasmosaurid plesiosaur from Syria, which comprises the middle and posterior cervical series, together with articulated pectoral, dorsal and anterior caudal parts of the vertebral column, with associated rib fragments. The fossil was excavated from Coniacian-Santonian phosphatic deposits of the Al Sawaneh el Charquieh mines, in the central part of the southwestern Palmyrides, about 200 km northeast of Damascus. The specimen can be assigned to Elasmosauridae based on the cervical centra morphology and, although incomplete, is significant because it not only represents likely the oldest, but also the currently most complete plesiosaur skeleton recovered from the Middle East.