Taniwhasaurus

Taniwhasaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Campanian), 83.6–72.1 Ma[1][2] PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Possible Santonian record in South Africa and Japan.[3][4]
Reconstructed skeleton of T. antarcticus, Field Museum
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Clade:	†Mosasauria
Family:	†Mosasauridae
Clade:	†Russellosaurina
Subfamily:	†Tylosaurinae
Genus:	†Taniwhasaurus Hector, 1874
Type species
†Taniwhasaurus oweni Hector, 1874
Other species
†T. antarcticus Novas et al., 2002 Uncertain species †T. 'capensis' Broom, 1912 †T. 'mikasaensis' Caldwell et al, 2008
Synonyms
List of synonyms Synonyms of genus Lakumasaurus Novas et al., 2002 Yezosaurus Muramoto & Obata, 1977 Synonyms of T. oweni Tylosaurus haumuriensis Hector, 1874 Leiodon haumuriensis Hector, 1874 Platecarpus oweni Lydekker, 1888 T. mikasaensis ? Caldwell et al., 2008 Synonyms of T. antarcticus Lakumasaurus antarcticus Novas et al., 2002 Synonyms of T. 'capensis' Tylosaurus capensis Broom, 1912 Synonyms of T. 'mikasaensis' Yezosaurus mikasaensis Muramoto & Obata, 1977

Taniwhasaurus is an extinct genus of mosasaurs (a group of extinct marine lizards) that lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. It is a member of the subfamily Tylosaurinae, a lineage of mosasaurs characterized by a long toothless conical rostrum. Two valid species are attached to the genus, T. oweni and T. antarcticus, known respectively from the fossil record of present-day New Zealand and Antarctica. Two other species have been nominally classified within the genus, T. 'capensis' and T. 'mikasaensis', recorded in present-day South Africa and Japan, but their attribution remains problematic due to the fragmentary state of their fossils. The generic name literally means "taniwha lizard", referring to a supernatural aquatic creature from Māori mythology.

Taniwhasaurus is a medium-sized mosasaurid, with maximum size estimates putting it at around 5 to 8 meters (16 to 26 ft) in length. The rare fossils of the axial skeleton indicate that the animal would have had great mobility in the vertebral column, but the tail would generate the main propulsive movement, a method of swimming proposed for other mosasaurids. The constitution of the forelimb of Taniwhasaurus indicates that it would have had powerful paddles for swimming. CT scans performed on the snout foramina of T. antarcticus show that Taniwhasaurus, like various aquatic predators today, would likely have had an electro-sensitive organ capable of detecting the movements of prey underwater.

The fossil record shows that both officially recognized species of Taniwhasaurus were endemic to the seas of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, nevertheless living in different types of bodies of waterbodies. The concerned geological formations shows that the genus shared its habitat with invertebrates, bony fishes, cartilaginous fishes, and other marine reptiles, including plesiosaurs and other mosasaurs.