Mauicetus

Mauicetus
Temporal range: Late Oligocene. 24.2–23.6 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: Balaenopteridae (?)
Genus: †Mauicetus
Benham, 1939
Type species
Lophocephalus parki
Benham, 1937
Synonyms

Lophocephalus Benham, 1937

Mauicetus is a genus of extinct baleen whale from the Late Oligocene of New Zealand.

Taxonomy

Mauicetus was originally named Lophocephalus by William Benham, but that name was already used for a beetle, and Benham provided the replacement name Mauicetus.[1][2] Three more species were named in 1956: M. brevicollis, M. lophocephalus, and M. waitakiensis.[3] Nowadays, Mauicetus parki is considered a stem-balaenopteroid, while M. lophocephalus and M. waitakiensis have been reclassified in Eomysticetidae, with M. lophocephalus and M. waitakiensis being assigned to Tokarahia and Tohoraata.[4][5][6]

References

  1. ↑ W. B. Benham. 1937. On Lophocephalus, a new genus of zeuglodont Cetacea. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 67(1):1-7
  2. ↑ W. B. Benham. 1939. Mauicetus: a Fossil Whale. Nature 143(3627):765
  3. ↑ B. J. Marples. 1956. Cetotheres (Cetacea) from the Oligocene of New Zealand. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 126(4):565-580
  4. ↑ Robert W. Boessenecker and R. Ewan Fordyce (2014). "A new Eomysticetid (Mammalia: Cetacea) from the Late Oligocene of New Zealand and a re-evaluation of ‘Mauicetus’ waitakiensis". Papers in Palaeontology. in press. doi:10.1002/spp2.1005.
  5. ↑ STEEMAN, M. E. 2007. Cladistic analysis and a revised classi- fication of fossil and recent mysticetes. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 150, 875–894.
  6. ↑ Robert W. Boessenecker and R. Ewan Fordyce (2015). "A new genus and species of eomysticetid (Cetacea: Mysticeti) and a reinterpretation of ‘Mauicetus’ lophocephalus Marples, 1956: Transitional baleen whales from the upper Oligocene of New Zealand". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. in press. doi:10.1111/zoj.12297.
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