Kaiwhekea is an extinct

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

 genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of plesiosaur

Plesiosaur

Plesiosauroidea is an extinct clade of carnivorous plesiosaur marine reptiles. Plesiosauroids, are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods...

 from the Late Cretaceous

Late Cretaceous

The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...

 (Maastrichtian

Maastrichtian

The Maastrichtian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the latest age or upper stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series, the Cretaceous period or system, and of the Mesozoic era or erathem. It spanned from 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma to 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma...

 age) of what is now New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. The type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

, Kaiwhekea katiki, was first described by Arthur Cruickshank and Ewan Fordyce in 2002

2002 in paleontology

-Newly named dinosaurs:Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list and Dr. Jeremy Montague's dinosaur genus database.-New taxa:-Pterosaurs:In October, a partial Mesadacylus wing was discovered in the Kingsview Quarry of Colorado...

. Kaiwhekea was approximately 7 meters long and lived around 69-70 million years ago. The single known specimen, found in the Katiki Formation

Katiki Formation

The Katiki Formation is a Mesozoic geologic formation. Plesiosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from its strata....

, is nearly complete, and is on display at the Otago Museum in Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

, New Zealand.

Kaiwhekea has been placed as an aristonectid

Aristonectidae

The Aristonectidae is a taxonomic family of poorly known plesiosaurs from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. They are closely related to polycotylid plesiosaurs. The family is made up of Tatenectes, Kimmerosaurus, Aristonectes, and Kaiwhekea...

 plesiosaur close to Aristonectes

Aristonectes

Aristonectes is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous of what is now South America and Antarctica...

(O'Keefe and Street, 2009). In 2010, Kaiwhekea was transferred to Leptocleididae

Leptocleididae

Leptocleididae is a family of small-sized plesiosaurs that lived during the Early Cretaceous period . Leptocleidus and Umoonasaurus had round bodies and triangle shaped heads. Hilary F. Ketchum and Roger B. J. Benson , transferred Brancasaurus, Kaiwhekea, Nichollssaura and Thililua to this family...

.

External links

• Kaiwhekea, University of Otago, New Zealand