Kaiwhekea
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
Restoration
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: †Sauropterygia
Order: †Plesiosauria
Family: †Elasmosauridae
Subfamily: †Aristonectinae
Genus: †Kaiwhekea
Cruickshank & Fordyce, 2002
Type species
†Kaiwhekea katiki
Cruickshank & Fordyce, 2002

Kaiwhekea ([ˌkaiˈfɛkɛa]) is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian age) of what is now New Zealand.

History of discovery

Restoration

The type species, Kaiwhekea katiki, was first described by Arthur Cruickshank and Ewan Fordyce in 2002. Kaiwhekea was approximately 6.5–7 metres (21–23 ft) long. It lived around 70-69 million years ago. The single known specimen, found in the Katiki Formation near Shag Point on the coast of Otago, is nearly complete, and is on display at the Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand.[1][2]

Classification

Kaiwhekea has been placed as an aristonectine plesiosaur close to Aristonectes (O'Keefe and Street, 2009). In 2010, Kaiwhekea was transferred to Leptocleididae,[3] but more recent analyses do not find the same result.[4]

The following cladogram shows the placement of Kaiwhekea within Elasmosauridae following an analysis by Rodrigo A. Otero, 2016:[5]

Elasmosauridae

Eromangasaurus carinognathus

Callawayasaurus colombiensis

Libonectes morgani

Tuarangisaurus keyesi

Thalassomedon haningtoni

CM Zfr 115

Hydrotherosaurus alexandrae

Futabasaurus suzukii

Aristonectinae

Kaiwhekea katiki

Alexandronectes zealandiensis

Morturneria seymourensis

Aristonectes parvidens

Aristonectes quiriquinensis

Elasmosaurinae

Terminonatator pointeixensis

Elasmosaurus platyurus

Albertonectes vanderveldei

Styxosaurus sp. (="Hydralmosaurus serpentinus")

Styxosaurus snowii

Styxosaurus browni

See also

References

  1. ↑ Cruickshank, Arthur R.I.; Fordyce, R. Ewan (2002). "A new marine reptile (Sauropterygia) from New Zealand: further evidence for a Late Cretaceous austral radiation of cryptoclidid plesiosaurs". Palaeontology. 45 (3): 557–575. doi:10.1111/1475-4983.00249.
  2. ↑ Fordyce, R. Ewan. "Kaiwhekea katiki, a Late Cretaceous plesiosaur from high southern latitudes". otago.ac.nz. University of Otago. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  3. ↑ Ketchum, H. F.; Benson, R. B. J. (2010). "Global interrelationships of Plesiosauria (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) and the pivotal role of taxon sampling in determining the outcome of phylogenetic analyses". Biological Reviews. 85 (2): 361–392. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.2009.00107.x. PMID 20002391. S2CID 12193439.
  4. ↑ O'Gorman, J.P.; Otero, R.A.; Hiller, N.; Simes, J.; Terezow, M. (2016). "Redescription of Tuarangisaurus keyesi (Sauropterygia; Elasmosauridae), a key species from the uppermost Cretaceous of the Weddellian Province: Internal skull anatomy and phylogenetic position". Cretaceous Research. 71: 118–136. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2016.11.014.
  5. ↑ Otero, R. A. (2016). "Taxonomic reassessment of Hydralmosaurus as Styxosaurus: new insights on the elasmosaurid neck evolution throughout the Cretaceous". PeerJ. 4: e1777. doi:10.7717/peerj.1777. PMC 4806632. PMID 27019781.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
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