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Kaiwhekea
''Kaiwhekea'' () is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian age) of what is now New Zealand. History of discovery The type species, ''Kaiwhekea katiki'', was first described by Arthur Cruickshank and Ewan Fordyce in 2002. ''Kaiwhekea'' was approximately long and weighed in body mass. It lived around the middle Maastrichtian. The single known specimen, found in the Katiki Formation near Shag Point on the coast of Otago, is nearly complete, and is on display at the Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand. Classification ''Kaiwhekea'' has been placed as an aristonectine plesiosaur close to '' Aristonectes'' (O'Keefe and Street, 2009). In 2010, ''Kaiwhekea'' was transferred to Leptocleididae, but more recent analyses do not find the same result. The following cladogram shows the placement of ''Kaiwhekea'' within Elasmosauridae following an analysis by Rodrigo A. Otero, 2016: See also * List of plesiosaur genera * Timeline of plesiosaur researc ...
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Kaiwhekea NT Small
''Kaiwhekea'' () is an extinction, extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian age) of what is now New Zealand. History of discovery The type species, ''Kaiwhekea katiki'', was first described by Arthur Cruickshank and Ewan Fordyce in 2002 in paleontology, 2002. ''Kaiwhekea'' was approximately long and weighed in body mass. It lived around the middle Maastrichtian. The single known specimen, found in the Katiki Formation near Shag Point on the coast of Otago, is nearly complete, and is on display at the Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand. Classification ''Kaiwhekea'' has been placed as an Aristonectinae, aristonectine plesiosaur close to ''Aristonectes'' (O'Keefe and Street, 2009). In 2010, ''Kaiwhekea'' was transferred to Leptocleididae, but more recent analyses do not find the same result. The following cladogram shows the placement of ''Kaiwhekea'' within Elasmosauridae following an analysis by Rodrigo A. Otero, 2016: See also * List of ples ...
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Alexandronectes Zealandiensis
''Alexandronectes'' is a genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur, a type of long-necked marine reptile, that lived in the oceans of Late Cretaceous New Zealand. It contains one species, ''A. zealandiensis''. Fossils of ''Alexandronectes'' were found in the Conway Formation of Canterbury,Waipara River, M34/f1073
at .org which can be dated to the Early stage of the . Fossils of it were found around 1872 near the Wa ...
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Katiki Formation
The Katiki Formation is a Late Cretaceous (Campanian to Maastrichtian, or Haumurian in the regional stratigraphy) geologic formation of the South Island of New Zealand.Katiki Formation
in the
Plesiosaur remains of '' Kaiwhekea katiki'', named after the formation, are among the s that have been recovered from the

Leptocleididae
Leptocleididae is a family of small-sized plesiosaurs that lived during the Early Cretaceous period (early Berriasian to early Albian stage). They had small bodies with small heads and short necks. '' Leptocleidus'' and '' Umoonasaurus'' had round bodies and triangle-shaped heads. Leptocleidids have been found in what were shallow nearshore, freshwater and brackish habitats. Hilary F. Ketchum and Roger B. J. Benson (2010), transferred ''Brancasaurus ''Brancasaurus'' (meaning "Branca's lizard") is a genus of plesiosaur which lived in a freshwater lake in the Early Cretaceous of what is now North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a long neck possessing vertebrae bearing distinctively-shaped "s ...'', '' Kaiwhekea'', '' Nichollssaura'' and '' Thililua'' to this family. However, Ketchum and Benson (2011) reassigned ''Kaiwhekea'' and ''Thililua'' to their original positions, as an elasmosaurid and a polycotylid, respectively. Phylogeny Cladogram based on Ketchum and Benson (2011 ...
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2002 In Paleontology
Plants Gymnosperms Angiosperms Arthropods Insects Conodonts New taxa Archosauromorphs Dinosaurs New taxa Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list. Birds New taxa Plesiosaurs New taxa Pterosaurs In October, a partial ''Mesadacylus'' wing was discovered in the Kingsview Quarry of Colorado. This find marks the first time that a Morrison pterosaur has been found at more than one site in the formation.Foster, J. (2007). "''Mesadactylus ornithosphyos''." ''Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World''. Indiana University Press. pp. 159-160. New taxa Lepidosauromorphs Squamates New taxa Synapsids Non-mammalian References {{Reflist, 2 2000s in paleontology Paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present) ...
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Aristonectinae
Aristonectinae is a clade of plesiosaurs in the family Elasmosauridae. It includes the Late Cretaceous plesiosaurs '' Aristonectes'' and ''Kaiwhekea'', traditionally grouped with the Late Jurassic ''Tatenectes'' and ''Kimmerosaurus'' in the family 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'', an .... References Late Cretaceous plesiosaurs {{cretaceous-reptile-stub ...
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Tuarangisaurus Keyesi
''Tuarangisaurus'' ( mi, tuarangi "ancient" + el, σαῦρος, sauros "lizard") is an extinct genus of elasmosaurid known from New Zealand. The type and only known species is ''Tuarangisaurus keyesi'', named by Wiffen and Moisley in 1986. Discovery ''Tuarangisaurus'' is known from the holotype NZGS CD425, a nearly complete skull and mandible, and from NZGS CD426, nine anterior-most cervical vertebrae. Some postcranial remains of juveniles were also attributed to ''Tuarangisaurus''. It was collected from the Maungataniwha Sandstone Member of the Tahora Formation, dating to the upper Campanian to lower Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous. A second species, ''T. australis'', was named in 2005; however, it was moved to the genus '' Eromangasaurus'' in 2007, becoming the senior synonym of ''E. carinognathus''. A third species, ''T.? cabazai'', was also referred to ''Tuarangisaurus'' by the original description; however, it was most recently reassigned to an indetermina ...
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Elasmosauridae
Elasmosauridae is an extinct family of plesiosaurs, often called elasmosaurs. They had the longest necks of the plesiosaurs and existed from the Hauterivian to the Maastrichtian stages of the Cretaceous, and represented one of the two groups of plesiosaurs present at the end of the Cretaceous alongside Polycotylidae. Their diet mainly consisted of crustaceans and molluscs. Description The earliest elasmosaurids were mid-sized, about . In the Late Cretaceous, elasmosaurids grew as large as , such as ''Styxosaurus'', '' Albertonectes'', and ''Thalassomedon''. Their necks were the longest of all the plesiosaurs, with anywhere between 32 and 76 (''Albertonectes'') cervical vertebrae. They weighed up to several tons. Classification Early three-family classification Though Cope had originally recognized ''Elasmosaurus'' as a plesiosaur, in an 1869 paper he placed it, with '' Cimoliasaurus'' and '' Crymocetus'', in a new order of sauropterygian reptiles. He named the group S ...
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Otago Museum
Tūhura Otago Museum is located in the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is adjacent to the University of Otago campus in Dunedin North, 1,500 metres northeast of the city centre. It is one of the city's leading attractions and has one of the largest museum collections in New Zealand. Natural science specimens and humanities artefacts from Otago, New Zealand and the world form the basis for long-term gallery displays. An interactive science centre within the museum includes a large, immersive tropical butterfly rainforest environment. In February 2022 the museum was gifted the name ''Tūhura'', meaning "to discover, investigate and explore" by local rūnanga, changing the official name to Tūhura Otago Museum. History Origins The name "Otago Museum" was first used by James Hector to describe his geological collections on display at the 1865 New Zealand Exhibition, held in Dunedin. Some of these collections were the nucleus of the Otago Museum, which first opened to the pu ...
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Futabasaurus Suzukii
''Futabasaurus'' is a genus of plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Fukushima, Japan. It was described and named in 2006, and was assigned to the family Elasmosauridae. The genus contains one species, ''F. suzukii''. Description The size of ''Futabasaurus'' has been estimated within the range of in length and in body mass. It can be distinguished from other elasmosaurids by the following characteristics: there is a long distance between the eye sockets and nostrils; the interclavicles and clavicles are fused, and the anterior edge is bent; the humerus is relatively long; and the femora are slim and show prominent muscle scars. Discovery and naming ''Futabasaurus'' is the first elasmosaurid found in Japan. It was originally known as either "Wellesisaurus sudzuki" or "Futaba-ryu" before publication. The type specimen of ''Futabasaurus'' was found in the Irimazawa Member of the Tamayama Formation, in the Futaba Group of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The rocks in which it w ...
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Aristonectes
''Aristonectes'' (meaning 'best swimmer') is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous Paso del Sapo Formation of what is now Argentina, the Quiriquina Formation of Chile and the Lopez de Bertodano Formation of Antarctica. The type species is ''Aristonectes parvidens'', first named by Cabrera in 1941. Description Analysis of a specimen from the Lopez de Bertodano Formation indicates that ''Aristonectes'' was one of the largest plesiosaurs ever to exist, with an estimated body length of and body mass of per Paul and per O'Gorman and his colleagues. Classification ''Aristonectes'' was classified variously since its original 1941 description, but a 2003 review of plesiosaurs from Patagonia conducted by Gasparini ''et al.'' (2003) found that ''Aristonectes'' was most closely related to elasmosaurid plesiosaurs like ''Elasmosaurus''. The authors also considered '' Morturneria'' a junior synonym of ''Aristonectes'' because the former's holotype has unfus ...
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Aristonectes Parvidens
''Aristonectes'' (meaning 'best swimmer') is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous Paso del Sapo Formation of what is now Argentina, the Quiriquina Formation of Chile and the Lopez de Bertodano Formation of Antarctica. The type species is ''Aristonectes parvidens'', first named by Cabrera in 1941. Description Analysis of a specimen from the Lopez de Bertodano Formation indicates that ''Aristonectes'' was one of the largest plesiosaurs ever to exist, with an estimated body length of and body mass of per Paul and per O'Gorman and his colleagues. Classification ''Aristonectes'' was classified variously since its original 1941 description, but a 2003 review of plesiosaurs from Patagonia conducted by Gasparini ''et al.'' (2003) found that ''Aristonectes'' was most closely related to elasmosaurid plesiosaurs like ''Elasmosaurus''. The authors also considered ''Morturneria'' a junior synonym of ''Aristonectes'' because the former's holotype has unfused neur ...
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