''Argonauta oweri'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species of argonautid

octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...

. It is known from the early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

.Saul, L.R. & C.J. Stadum (2005). Fossil argonauts (Mollusca: Cephalopoda: Octopodida) from Late Miocene siltstones of the Los Angeles Basin, California. ''Journal of Paleontology'' 79(3): 520–531. Martill, D.M. & M.J. Barker (2006). A paper nautilus (Octopoda, ''Argonauta'') from the Miocene Pakhna Formation of Cyprus. ''Palaeontology'' 49(5): 1035–1041. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

, a fossilised eggcase, measures 118 mm in diameter. Its

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

is 95 mm high and 40 mm across at its widest point (though it is slightly crushed). It was collected by John R. Ower of

Superior Oil Company The Superior Oil Company was an American oil company founded in 1921 in Coalinga, California, by William Myron Keck, Superior Oil began as a drilling contracting firm and grew into the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. In 1930 t ...

(after whom it is named) in a " limy

concretion A concretion is a hard and compact mass formed by the precipitation of mineral cement within the spaces between particles, and is found in sedimentary rock or soil. Concretions are often ovoid or spherical in shape, although irregular shapes a ...

ary boulder" in

Hautapu River Hautapu is a township in the Waipa District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, located just north of Cambridge across State Highway 1. The area was identified as the Hautapu Parish on a militia farm map published in 1864 during ...

, due west of Flat Spur and southeast of Utiku, New Zealand. The fossil was not found ''in situ'' and therefore its parent

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondary ...

is unknown, though Hautapu River flows exclusively through early Pliocene rocks and according to the describing author "the horizon is almost certainly Waitotaran".

References

oweri Fossil taxa described in 1945 Extinct animals of New Zealand Molluscs of New Zealand {{octopus-stub