Waipatia maerewhenua, new genus and new species (Waipatiidae, new family), an archaic late Oligocene dolphin (Cetacea: Odontoceti: Platanistoidea) from New Zealand

Abstract

Waipatia maerewhenua, from the Otekaike Limestone (late Oligocene), Waitaki Valley, New Zealand, is a new genus and species in a new family Waipatiidae (Odontoceti: Platanistoidea) near the base of the radiation of platanistoids. Its anatomical and morphological features are described. Waipatia maerewhenua is more closely related to the Squalodelphidae and Platanistidae than to the Squalodontidae. Of the similar small dolphins previously identified as Squalodontidae, Microcetus ambiguus (late Oligocene, Germany) and Sachalinocetus cholmicus (early or middle Miocene, Sakhalin) are possible waipatiids. These taxa reveal an early radiation of the Platanistoidea by the late Oligocene. -from Author