''Kaiwhekea'' () 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 ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

plesiosaur The Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an Order (biology), order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period (geology), Period, possibly in the Rhaetian st ...

from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

(

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

age) of what is now New Zealand.

History of discovery

The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

was discovered in 1983 by Gary Raper, an amateur fossil collector, at the base of a cliff at

Shag Point Shag Point / Matakaea is a headland and township in East Otago, New Zealand. Both the point and the nearby Shag River take their English name from a seabird, the pied shag. The township extends along a single road, which leaves State Highw ...

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

. It was later recovered by a team from the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

's Geology department. The specimen was enclosed in a large concretion measuring metres long and weighing an estimated 10 tons. The block was split along natural seams and dragged out on a sledge (made from a car bonnet). The skeleton is mostly preserved as negative moulds as the mineralised bone was too fragile to be preserved. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

, ''Kaiwhekea katiki'', was first described by Arthur Cruickshank and Ewan Fordyce in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. The genus name comes from the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

words meaning "food" and meaning "squid", together meaning "squid-eater". The specific epithet refers to Kātiki Beach, to the north of the find location. ''Kaiwhekea'' was approximately long. It lived around 70-69 million years ago. The single known specimen, found in the Katiki Formation near

on the coast of

, is nearly complete, and is on display at the

Otago Museum Otago (, ; ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government region. Its po ...

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

, New Zealand.

Classification

''Kaiwhekea'' has been placed as an aristonectine plesiosaur close to ''

Aristonectes ''Aristonectes'' (meaning "best swimmer") is an extinct genus of large elasmosaurid plesiosaurs that lived during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Two species are known, ''A. parvidens'' and ''A. quiriquinensis'', whose fossil ...

''. In 2010, ''Kaiwhekea'' was transferred to

Leptocleididae Leptocleididae is a family of small-sized plesiosaurs that lived during the Early Cretaceous period (early Berriasian to early Albian stage). They had small bodies with small heads and short necks. '' Leptocleidus'' and '' Umoonasaurus'' had roun ...

, but more recent analyses do not find the same result. The following

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

shows the placement of ''Kaiwhekea'' within Elasmosauridae following an analysis by Rodrigo A. Otero, 2016:

References

External links

*
''Kaiwhekea''
University of Otago, New Zealand {{Taxonbar, from=Q786325 Late Cretaceous plesiosaurs Extinct reptiles of New Zealand Plesiosaurs of Oceania Fossil taxa described in 2002 Sauropterygian genera Elasmosauridae

History of discovery

Classification

See also

References

External links