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Kaiika facts for kids

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Kaiika
Temporal range: Early Eocene
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Sphenisciformes
Genus: †Kaiika
Fordyce & Thomas, 2011
Species
  • †K. maxwelli Fordyce & Thomas, 2011 (type)

Kaiika (Māori for "eater of fish") is an extinct genus of basal penguin from Early Eocene (Waipawan-Mangaorapan subage) deposits of South Canterbury, New Zealand. It is known only from a single humerus. It was found in 1998 by Dr Phillip Maxwell, a paleontologist and stratigrapher, from the Kauru Formation of the Canterbury Basin, near the Waihao River. It was first named by Ewan Fordyce and Daniel Thomas in 2011 and the type species is Kaiika maxwelli. Kaiika is one of the oldest penguins known.

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