Kaiwhekea
| Kaiwhekea | ||||||||||||
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Kaiwhekea katiki |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian ) | ||||||||||||
| 72 to 69.9 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Kaiwhekea | ||||||||||||
| Cruickshank & Fordyce , 2002 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Kaiwhekea ( Maori : "squid eater", kai = "food", whekea = " squid ") is a plesiosaur from the Upper Cretaceous New Zealand . The fossil remains of the only known species Kaiwhekea katiki were found in the siltstone in the Otago regionon the South Island . The rock layer is around 70 to 69 million years old (Lower Maastrichtian ). The site was at the time of the Upper Cretaceous near the southern polar circle . The fossil is an almost complete skeleton with a skull, which is also articulated (in an anatomical composite).
The skull is relatively large, the muzzle short, in the upper jaw there are 43 on each side, in the lower jaw 42 similar ( homodonte ), small, needle-shaped teeth. The number of 43 vertebrae in the cervical spine and the structure of the rest of the body correspond to those of closely related genera. A large temporal opening behind the eyes suggests strong jaw muscles. The eyes were large, perhaps to hunt food in deeper layers of water. Kaiwhekea probably ate medium-sized prey that had soft bodies, like squids.
Systematics
Within the Plesiosauria, Kaiwhekea is placed among the Cryptoclidia , which are also known from numerous finds from Europe. It is the first cryptocurrency found in New Zealand and one of the largest, measuring 6.5 meters in length. Kaiwhekea is not particularly closely related to the other Cryptoclidia, Morturneria ( Seymour Island , Antarctic Peninsula ) and Aristonectes ( Chile , Argentina ) found in the southern hemisphere .
swell
- Arthur RI Cruickshank, R. Ewan Fordyce: A New Marine Reptile (Sauropterygia) from New Zealand: Further Evidence for A Late Cretaceous Austral Radiation of Cryptoclidid Plesiosaurs. In: Palaeontology. Vol. 45, No. 3, 2002, ISSN 0031-0239 , pp. 557-575, doi : 10.1111 / 1475-4983.00249 .
- R. Ewan Fordyce: Kaiwhekea katiki, a Late Cretaceous plesiosaur from high southern latitudes. University of Otago, New Zealand, Department of Geology.
- Plesiosauria.com Kaiwhekea
- ↑ Plesiosaur.com Kaiwhekea ( Memento of the original from December 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Hartmut Haubold : Literature report. Ichthyosaurs and Sauropterygians . In: Zentralblatt für Geologie und Paläontologie. Part 2: Paleontology. Issue 5/6, 2002, ISSN 0044-4189 , pp. 367-410, here pp. 389-390, (PDF; 231 kB).
