Argonauta oweri

Argonauta oweri is an extinct species of argonautid octopus. It is known from the early Pliocene of New Zealand.^[1][2][3]

Argonauta oweri Temporal range: Pliocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Order:	Octopoda
Family:	Argonautidae
Genus:	Argonauta
Species:	†A. oweri
Binomial name
†Argonauta oweri Fleming, 1945[1]

The type specimen, a fossilised eggcase, measures 118 mm in diameter. Its aperture is 95 mm high and 40 mm across at its widest point (though it is slightly crushed).^[1] It was collected by John R. Ower of Superior Oil Company (after whom it is named) in a "limy concretionary boulder" in Hautapu River, due west of Flat Spur and 1.4 miles (2.3 km) southeast of Utiku, New Zealand.^[1]

The fossil was not found in situ and therefore its parent formation is unknown,^[3] though Hautapu River flows exclusively through early Pliocene rocks and according to the describing author "the horizon is almost certainly Waitotaran".^[1]