Papahu-like fossil dolphin from Kaikoura, New Zealand, helps to fill the Early Miocene gap in the history of Odontoceti

An early Miocene dolphin (ZMT 73: partial skull and ear bones) from Kaikoura, New Zealand, is the sister taxon to the previously named Early Miocene Papahu taitapu. The new specimen, although insufficient to justify a new species name, includes an informative squamosal and periotic that help move the Papahu clade from the stem Odontoceti to either the Platanistoidea, or to become the sister taxon to the Ziphiidae+Eurhinodelphinidae+Delphinida. The fossils usefully add to the taxonomic and structural diversity of Cetacea during the important but poorly known Early Miocene.