Mauicetus

Mauicetus is a genus of extinct baleen whale from the Late Oligocene of New Zealand.

Mauicetus
Temporal range: Late Oligocene. 24.2–23.6 Ma
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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Infraorder: Cetacea
Family: Balaenopteridae (?)
Genus: †Mauicetus
Benham, 1939
Type species
Lophocephalus parki
Benham, 1937
Synonyms

Lophocephalus Benham, 1937

Taxonomy

Mauicetus was originally named Lophocephalus by William Benham, but that name was already used for a beetle, and Benham provided the replacement name Mauicetus.[1][2] Three more species were named in 1956: M. brevicollis, M. lophocephalus, and M. waitakiensis.[3] Nowadays, Mauicetus parki is considered a stem-balaenopteroid, while M. lophocephalus and M. waitakiensis have been reclassified in Eomysticetidae, with M. lophocephalus and M. waitakiensis being assigned to Tokarahia and Tohoraata.[4][5][6]

References
  1. W. B. Benham. 1937. On Lophocephalus, a new genus of zeuglodont Cetacea. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 67(1):1-7
  2. W. B. Benham. 1939. Mauicetus: a Fossil Whale. Nature 143(3627):765
  3. B. J. Marples. 1956. Cetotheres (Cetacea) from the Oligocene of New Zealand. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 126(4):565-580
  4. Robert W. Boessenecker and R. Ewan Fordyce (2014). "A new Eomysticetid (Mammalia: Cetacea) from the Late Oligocene of New Zealand and a re-evaluation of ‘Mauicetus’ waitakiensis". Papers in Palaeontology. in press. doi:10.1002/spp2.1005.
  5. STEEMAN, M. E. 2007. Cladistic analysis and a revised classification of fossil and recent mysticetes. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 150, 875–894.
  6. Robert W. Boessenecker and R. Ewan Fordyce (2015). "A new genus and species of eomysticetid (Cetacea: Mysticeti) and a reinterpretation of ‘Mauicetus’ lophocephalus Marples, 1956: Transitional baleen whales from the upper Oligocene of New Zealand". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. in press. doi:10.1111/zoj.12297.


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