''Kaiika'' (
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
for "eater of fish") is an
extinct genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of basal
penguin from
Early Eocene (
Waipawan-Mangaorapan subage) deposits of
South Canterbury
South Canterbury is the area of the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand bounded by the Rangitata River in the north and the Waitaki River (the border with the Otago Region) to the south. The Pacific Ocean and ridge of the Southe ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. It is known only from a single
humerus. It was found in 1998 by Dr Phillip Maxwell, a paleontologist and stratigrapher, from the
Kauru Formation of the
Canterbury Basin, near the
Waihao River The Waihao River is a natural watercourse in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It flows into the Wainono Lagoon near Studholme.
The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives translations of "water of net fishing" or " ...
. It was first named by
Ewan Fordyce
Ewan is an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name Eòghann. It is possibly a derivative of the Pictish name, ''Vuen'' (or 'Wen'), "The Warrior" or "born of the mountain". It is most common as a male given name in Scotland and Canada. It is a ...
and Daniel Thomas in
2011 and the
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...
is ''Kaiika maxwelli''. ''Kaiika'' is one of the oldest penguins known.
References
Eocene birds
Fossil taxa described in 2011
Extinct penguins
Extinct birds of New Zealand
Sphenisciformes
Extinct monotypic bird genera
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