Argonauta oweri
| 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] | |
Argonauta oweri is an extinct species of argonautid octopus. It is known from the early Pliocene of New Zealand.[1][2][3]
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]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Fleming, C.A. (1945). Some New Zealand Tertiary cephalopods. PDF Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 74(4): 411–418.
- ↑ Saul, L.R. & C.J. Stadum (2005). Fossil argonauts (Mollusca: Cephalopoda: Octopodida) from Late Miocene siltstones of the Los Angeles Basin, California. Journal of Paleontology 79(3): 520–531. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079<0520:FAMCOF>2.0.CO;2
- 1 2 Martill, D.M. & M.J. Barker (2006). A paper nautilus (Octopoda, Argonauta) from the Miocene Pakhna Formation of Cyprus. Palaeontology 49(5): 1035–1041. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00578.x
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