Revision of the short-necked Cretaceous plesiosaurians from New Zealand

Abstract

Polycotylidae Cope, 1869 is a clade of short-necked plesiosaurians that achieved a cosmopolitan distribution by the Late Cretaceous. Here, the material previously referred to Polycotylidae/Pliosauridae from the Upper Cretaceous of New Zealand is reviewed, concluding that only 2.4% and 7.7% respectively of the total plesiosaurians specimens recovered in these formations (late Campanian-early Maastrichtian Tahora Formation and Campanian-Maastrichtian Conway Formation) belong to Polycotylidae. This proportion is similar to that recorded in upper Campanian-Maastrichtian levels of the Allen, Los Alamitos and La Colonia formations, northern Patagonia (Argentina) and southernmost Chile, but contrasts with the coeval absence of polycotylids in Campanian-Santonian levels of Antarctica and central Chile. These new results improve our knowledge about the representation of Weddellian polycotylids and underline the relative scarcity of Campanian-Maastrichtian records in the Weddellia Province.