Waipatia

Waipatia
Temporal range: Late Oligocene
The fish Megalampris (above) and W. maerewhenua (below)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
(unranked): Platanistida
Superfamily: Platanistoidea (?)
Family: †Waipatiidae
Fordyce, 1994
Genus: †Waipatia
Fordyce, 1994
Species
  • W. maerewhenua Fordyce, 1994[1]
  • W. hectori (Benham, 1935)
Synonyms

Waipatia is an extinct genus of whale from the late Oligocene (Chattian) of New Zealand.

Taxonomy

The type species, Waipatia maerewhenua is known from a single skull found near 45° South in Otago .[2] The second species, W. hectori, was originally named Microcetus hectori in 1935, but later recognized as distinct from Microcetus.[3][4] "Uncamentodon" was informally coined for M. hectori in a table by Rothausen in a 1970 paper, but the lack of a diagnosis or description made it a nomen nudum. Finally in 2015, M. hectori was recognized as a second species of Waipatia based on preparation of additional material included in the holotype.[5]

References

  1. ↑ R. E. Fordyce (1994). "Waipatia maerewhenua, new genus and new species (Waipatiidae, new family), an archaic Late Oligocene dolphin (Cetacea: Odontoceti: Platanistoidea) from New Zealand". In A. Berta & T. Deméré. Contributions in marine mammal paleontology honoring Frank C. Whitmore, Jr. (Proceedings of the San Diego Museum of Natural History, 29) (PDF). pp. 147–176.
  2. ↑ R. Ewan Fordyce. "Waipatia maerewhenua — a small archaic dolphin from the Oligocene of New Zealand". University of Otago.
  3. ↑ W. B. Benham. 1935. The teeth of an extinct whale, Microcetus hectori n. sp. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 65:239-243
  4. ↑ K. Rothausen. 1961. Ueber Microcetus, einen kleinen Squalodontiden aus dem Oberoligozaen. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 112(1):106-116
  5. ↑ Y. Tanaka and R. E. Fordyce. 2015. Historically significant late Oligocene dolphin Microcetus hectori Benham 1935: a new species of Waipatia (Platanistoidea). Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Further reading

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