Whakakai

Whakakai Temporal range: Late Oligocene, 27–25 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
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

Whakakai is a genus of baleen whale from the Late Oligocene (Chattian) Kokoamu Greensand of New Zealand.

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

1. 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