Whakakai

Whakakai is a genus of baleen whale from the Late Oligocene (Chattian) Kokoamu Greensand of New Zealand.

Whakakai Temporal range: Late Oligocene, 27–25 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Infraorder:	Cetacea
Parvorder:	Mysticeti
Genus:	†Whakakai Tsai and Fordyce, 2016
Type species
Whakakai waipata Tsai and Fordyce, 2016

Classification

Phylogenetic analysis recovers Whakakai outside crown Mysticeti as the sister taxon of Horopeta.^[1]

Paleobiology

Whakakai has been recovered in the same deposits that have also yielded the primitive odontocetes Awamokoa, Austrosqualodon, Otekaikea, and Waipatia, the eomysticetids Matapanui, Tohoraata, Tokarahia, and Waharoa, and the balaenomorphs Mauicetus and Horopeta.