Whakakai
Whakakai is a genus of baleen whale from the Late Oligocene (Chattian) Kokoamu Greensand of New Zealand.
| Whakakai | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Infraorder: | Cetacea |
| Parvorder: | Mysticeti |
| Genus: | †Whakakai Tsai and Fordyce, 2016 |
| Type species | |
| Whakakai waipata Tsai and Fordyce, 2016 | |
Classification
Phylogenetic analysis recovers Whakakai outside crown Mysticeti as the sister taxon of Horopeta.[1]
Paleobiology
Whakakai has been recovered in the same deposits that have also yielded the primitive odontocetes Awamokoa, Austrosqualodon, Otekaikea, and Waipatia, the eomysticetids Matapanui, Tohoraata, Tokarahia, and Waharoa, and the balaenomorphs Mauicetus and Horopeta.
References
- Tsai, C.H., Fordyce R.E., 2016. Archaic baleen whale from the Kokoamu Greensand: earbones distinguish a new late Oligocene mysticete (Cetacea: Mysticeti) from New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. doi:10.1080/03036758.2016.1156552
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