Late Cretaceous marine reptiles (Elasmosauridae and Mosasauridae) of the Chatham Islands, New Zealand

A new marine reptile record for the Upper Cretaceous of the Chatham Islands is described from the Takatika Grit. Incomplete mosasaur and plesiosaur remains represent the first record of marine reptiles from the Chatham Islands and wider New Zealand. Present among the myriad bones are elasmosaurid plesiosaurs and mosasaurine mosasaurs. This assemblage is comparable to the New Zealand marine reptile record and represents apex predators that flourished in a zone of upwelling in a Late Cretaceous southern high-latitude ecosystem.