Early Paleocene marine vertebrates from the Wangaloa Formation, South Island, New Zealand

Abstract

Early Paleocene vertebrate material from the Wangaloa Formation, South Island, comprises newly discovered remains of turtles, chimaeroids, and a probable mylioba‐tid. This is the first report of non‐chondrichthyan vertebrate material from this formation and the earliest known Cenozoic chimaeroid from New Zealand. The material helps to deduce the composition of vertebrate assemblages during the biotic stabilisation phase a few million years after the K‐Pg mass extinction event c. 65 Ma.

Keywords:

• Chelonioidea
• Chimaeroidei
• myliobatid
• Paleocene
• Wangaloa Formation
• New Zealand