Mesozoic Marine Monsters of Mangahouanga

	Joan Wiffen, affectionately known "the Dragon Lady" fervently maintains her passion and zeal for New Zealand prehistoric flora and fauna. Work at the Mangahouanga location began in the early 1970’s with Joan’s husband Pont, and fellow fossil-hunting associates. The rich and unique fossil fauna from Mangahouanga, and Joan’s descriptions of them, necessitated a welcome revision of our previous understandings regarding New Zealand’s Mesozoic terrestrial fauna.
	Joan "striking the pose" in the Mangahouanga Stream during a 1998 field trip. One of Joan and Pont’s marine reptilian recoveries (Wiffen, J., 1980) has recently been confirmed by North American mosasaur expert Gorden Bell (et al) as a "..very important taxon that is morphologically unique.."
	Mosasaur right quadrates; anterior view - left: Mosasaurus flemingi; right: Mosasaurus mokoroa.
	Mosasaur skull Rikisaurus tehoensis (Wiffen) specimen number NZGS CD 531. Recovered from Mangahouanga Stream by Joan Wiffen.
	Juvenile mosasaur bones aff. M. mangahouangae. Specimen NZGS CD 532.
	Mosasaur skull, aff. Prognathodon overtoni (Williston), specimen number NZGS CD 535; currently on display at Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington. Recovered from Mangahouanga Stream by Joan Wiffen. BELOW: Recent photos by Steve Anderson showing right-side, frontal and left-side views of the skull.

The reference authored by Fleming (et al) (refer "Suggested Reading List") summarises and detailed new Cretaceous ichthyosaurian records. Sadly, material reported by workers Hector and Park from Nugget Point (South Otago), Kawhia (Waikato), Mount St Mary, and Eighty-eight Valley (Nelson) localities are no longer supported by extant fossil specimens. Discovered by world-renowned New Zealand geologist Harold Wellman in 1954, Fleming (et al) note that the Tinui, (Wairarapa) or "Gentle Annie Ichthyosaur" was dated to the Motuan Stage, Makirikiri Formation. Fossils include fragments of bone and "six imperfect vertebral centra" discovered in loose concretions. In 1967, M. R Johnson of the NZ Geological Survey collected further bone fragments and vertebral centra from two other localities ("Mangapurupuru" and "Whakarora" Ichthyosaurs). Material from the two localities was also established as having come from the Makirikiri Formation, and therefore also dated from the (Motuan) stage. The only Cretaceous ichthyosaurian genus known is noted by Long (1998) (and further detailed in McGowan (1972)) is Platypterygius, and therefore may be "tentatively referred" to this genus.

Where: Approximately 20km south of Kaikoura, Okarahia Sandstone, Tarapuhi Grit, and Conway Siltstone (Piripauan - Hamurian Stages); Laidmore Formation

When & Who: Amateurs collected material prior to that by Haast in 1869, however it was Haast’s, followed by those of Travers in 1871 (Taniwhasaurus oweni and Mosasaurus mokoroa), and McKay during 1872-73, that the historic early descriptions by Haast (1870) and Hector (1874) became widely known. Unfortunately, material recovered during extensive collecting at Haumuri Bluffs by McKay in 1876, was lost following arrival in the United States. Hector himself arranged for this large shipment aboard the Theresa Cosulich for later examination by that icon of early American fossil collecting, Edward Drinker Cope.

Refer to the web-pages headed "Current and Future Work" for detail of the recoveries from early in 1999.

Where: North of Dunedin, near the main road at Shag Point (on the shore platform) Katiki Formation Mudstone (Haumurian Stage) When: Recovered in 1983 Who: Ewan Fordyce, fellow workers from the Geology Department, University of Otago What: A 6.5m long plesiosaur, understood to have affinities to Cryptoclidus; other isolated plesiosaur bones. Vertebrae from a small mosasaur; other mosasaur vertebrae.

	Mosasaurus mokoroa (side and top views) This species is the New Zealand representative of the cosmopolitan mosasaurines. The skull material depicted is this graphic is from the Jed River, North Canterbury.
	Prognathodon waiparaensis (side reconstruction.) Recovered from the Waipara District, North Canterbury, this reconstruction is based on substantial skull material, and complete measures over 1 metre in length, and currently on display at the Canterbury Museum. Fossil material from this genus has also been recovered from Belgium. Prognathodon cf. P. overtoni (side view) Based on material from the Mangahouanga Stream, this skull reconstruction has been re-assigned by Bell (et al) to M. mangahouangae (as yet unpublished).
	Tylosaurus haumuriensis (side view) The only known remains of this endemic tylosaurine, this jaw reconstruction depicts the earliest discovered and extant fossil material, from Haumuri Bluff. An estimate of skull length (based upon the preserved material) is in excess of 1110 mm, and in this genus is only exceeded by the University of Kansas’ specimen of T. proriger at 1195 mm. Taniwhasaurus oweni (top and side views) This tylosaurine has the prospect of becoming much better known with more material becoming availability for study from Haumuri Bluff. Besides the material illustrated opposite, portions of a lower jaw are also known.
	Moanasaurus mangahouangae (Dorsal view) Recovered by Joan Wiffen and her co-workers in 1974, and the material described in 1980 has been confirmed by Bell and co-workers as having a number of unique features, and justifying its own genus and species assignment.
	Rikisaurus tehoensis (right side view) and a comparison of P. overtoni and Rikisaurus tehoensis The material in this graphic was collected in 1982 by Joan Wiffen and co-workers from Mangahouanga. Bell (et al) are understood to believe that Rikisaurus tehoensis (along with that of M. flemingi, not depicted in this web-site) should be reassigned to M. mangahouangae.

	Of all the marine reptile fossil material recovered to date from what is now New Zealand, mosasaurs outnumber all other Mesozoic vertebrates in both variety and quality of material recovered - this is paleo-artist Geoffrey Cox’s impression of a mosasaur
	A long-necked plesiosaur, or elasmosaur. Fossil material from two differing genus, Mauisaurus and Tuarangisaurus has been recovered from both North and South Island localities.
	Plesiosaur skulls are rarely preserved, and this very complete skull of the elasmosaurid Tuarangisaurus keyesi was collected by Joan Wiffen at Mangahouanga and her co-workers in 1978. See Steve Anderson's recent picture of this skull HERE.
	Fragments from the plastron and carapace of a turtle, of the family Protostegadae, have been recovered from Mangahouanga, and are thus far the only material found in the Southern Hemisphere of this family of chelonian, or turtle.
	Paleo-artist Geoffrey Cox’s impression of what the paleo-environment of what is now the Mangahouanga Stream, and immediate area may have looked like - some over 65 million years ago, in Late Cretaceous times.
	Mangahouanga has been a rich and productive location for the preservation of a range of a very unique marine and terrestrial vertebrate material. This artists impression by Geoffrey Cox is partly based on an impression of a pterodactyl scapula found by Joan Wiffen, and is but one example of some of the terrestrial material found thus far.

Work on the cladistic relationships of New Zealand mosasaurs to overseas taxa, and the need to establish validity of the current genus/species assignments highlighted by Otago University’s Ewan Fordyce (refer the "Suggested Reading List" entry "Fordyce, 1991") was recently completed earlier this year, and announced to the world palaeontological community at the 1999 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Conference at Denver in October.

Other recent discoveries include bone fragments, and dorsal or anterior sacral vertebra of a pachypleurosaurid sauropterygian, of Middle Triassic (Anisian) age. The six and a half metre long Shag Point plesiosaur understood to possess affinities to the Northern Hemisphere cryptoclidids, and recovered in 1983 by an Otago University team led by Ewan Fordyce remains on display at the Geology Department at the University of Otago. More information on this large specimen is hoped to be forthcoming in the near future.

For those interested in reading more about New Zealand’s mosasaurs and other Mesozoic fossils, the following publications and references list may be found useful: (Material especially suitable for students and the non-specialist, is noted with an asterisk(*)

Cruickshank, A.R.I., R. E. Fordyce, and J.A. Long. 1999. Recent developments in Australasian sauropterygian palaeontology (Reptilia: Sauropterygia). Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 57: pp. 201-205.

Cruickshank, A. R. I., and R. E. Fordyce. 2002. A new marine reptile (Sauropterygia) from New Zealand: Further evidence for a Late Cretaceous astral radiation of cryptoclidid plesiosaurs. Palaeontology, 45(3):557-575.

Wiffen, J. 1981. The first Late Cretaceous turtles from New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 24: 293-299.

Yarwood, V. 1993. The Hunt for New Zealand’s Dinosaurs. New Zealand Geographic 19: 102-122.

Credits: Unless otherwise noted, photographs are copyright © Joan Wiffen, and are used with her permission. Maps and drawings are copyright © John A. Long from his recent book, "Dinosaurs of Australia and New Zealand, and other animals of the Mesozoic Era," Harvard University Press, 1998, and are used with his permission.

	Depiction of vertebral and jaw material of Hector’s "Leiodon hamuriensis" (genus reassigned by Welles and Gregg to Tylosaurus haumuriensis). Plate 30 from Hector’s 1874 work "On the Fossil Reptilia of New Zealand"
	Figures "A" and "B" depicting skull and jaw material of Taniwhasaurus oweni, Plate 31. From Hector 1874.
	Paddle material and vertebra from T. oweni, figures "C" and "D" Plate 31.