Tangaroasaurus

Tangaroasaurus
Temporal range: Miocene 16.0–13.8 Ma
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A tooth from the type fossil
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: †Squalodontidae
Genus: †Tangaroasaurus
Benham, 1936
Species:
†T. kakanuiensis
Binomial name
†Tangaroasaurus kakanuiensis
Benham, 1936
Synonyms

Tangaroasaurus is an extinct genus of squalodontid whale from the Miocene of New Zealand. It contains a single species, Tangaroasaurus kakanuiensis. Similar to Basilosaurus and its close relative Squalodon, it was originally thought to be a species of marine reptile.[1][2] Parts of the Holotype are presumably lost. Its name comes from Tangaroa, the Māori god of the sea, while the suffix -saurus comes from the Latin word for reptile, the group that Tangaroasaurus was originally placed in.

The type fossil was found in a grey clay deposit at All Day Bay and consists of a jaw bearing a few teeth, measuring 5 cm (2.0 in) each. The original describer of the type specimen, William Blaxland Benham, described it as a reptile, either a dinosaur such as Megalosaurus or an late surviving ichthyosaur.[3] The genus was described as an odontocete cetacean in 1979 by R. E. Fordyce.[4]

The status of the genus as a cetacean remains under discussion.[5]

Tangaroasaurus jaw

Fossils known from the same geological formation, the All Day Bay formation and Gee Greensand Formation, include an unnamed species of Squalodelphinidae and a species of Prosqualodon.[6]

  1. ^ "Geology society of New Zealand Inc 2003 annual Conference". Scribd.
  2. ^ "Tangaroasaurus Benham 1935 (toothed whale)". PBDB.
  3. ^ Benham, W. B. (1936). "A Reptilian Jaw from Kakanui, South Island, New Zealand". Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 65: 232–238.
  4. ^ Ewan Fordyce, R. (1979-12-01). "Records of two Paleogene turtles and notes on other Tertiary reptilian remains from New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 22 (6): 737–741. doi:10.1080/00288306.1979.10424180.
  5. ^ "A new Ziphiidae (Cetacea) from the Early Miocene of Washington State (USA) and phylogenetic analysis of the major groups of odontocetes". Bull. Mus. Natn. Hist. Nut., Paris. 279-326. 1990.
  6. ^ "All Day Bay (Miocene of New Zealand)". PBDB.