Tangaroasaurus is an extinctgenus of squalodontid whale from the Miocene of New Zealand. It contains a single species, Tangaroasaurus kakanuiensis. Similar to Basilosaurus and its close relative Squalodon, it was originally thought to be a species of marine reptile.[1][2] Parts of the Holotype are presumably lost. Its name comes from Tangaroa, the Māorigod of the sea, while the suffix -saurus comes from the Latin word for reptile, the group that Tangaroasaurus was originally placed in.
The type fossil was found in a grey clay deposit at All Day Bay and consists of a jaw bearing a few teeth, measuring 5 cm (2.0 in) each. The original describer of the type specimen, William Blaxland Benham, described it as a reptile, either a dinosaur such as Megalosaurus or an late surviving ichthyosaur.[3] The genus was described as an odontocete cetacean in 1979 by R. E. Fordyce.[4]
The status of the genus as a cetacean remains under discussion.[5]
^Ewan Fordyce, R. (1979-12-01). "Records of two Paleogene turtles and notes on other Tertiary reptilian remains from New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 22 (6): 737–741. doi:10.1080/00288306.1979.10424180.
