Mauicetus: a Fossil Whale

Abstract

IN 1937, I published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand an account of a portion of a skull of an extinct whale found in the Upper Oligocene of New Zealand. To this skull I gave the generic name of Lophocephalus. Soon after the appearance of the article, my attention was directed to the fact that this same title had been bestowed already on three animals of widely different groups, namely, on a gregarine, on a beetle and on a fish; hence it is necessary to substitute another generic name for this whale. I propose to use the name Mauicetus. This name definitely associates the whale with New Zealand, for the Maoris have many legends about that mythical demi-god Maui.