University of Otago palaeontologists are
rewriting the history of New Zealand's ancient whales by describing a
previously unknown genus of baleen whale, alive more than 27.5 million years
ago and found in the Hakataramea Valley.
The new genus and species of extinct baleen
whale is based on a skull and associated bones unearthed from the Kokoamu
Greensand, a noted fossil-bearing rock unit in the South Canterbury and Waitaki
district from the Oligocene period, which extends from about 33.9 million to 23
million years ago. At this time, New Zealand was an archipelago surrounded by
shallow, richly productive seas.
Former Ph.D. student in the University of
Otago's Department of Geology, Cheng-Hsiu Tsai and his supervisor, Professor
Ewan Fordyce, have named the new genus Toipahautea waitaki, which translates in
Māori as a baleen-origin whale from the Waitaki region.
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