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Description
I intended to get this drawing done for Taranaki Anniversary Day (which was March 11 this year) but it ended up taking way longer than I thought (who would've thought a file with over 290 layers would lag and crash regularly). The Tangahoe Formation is a Pliocene-aged site in Taranaki, New Zealand which was a shallow marine environment at that time (around 3 million years ago), and fossils of various seabirds, fish and marine mammals are known from there. Four years ago I drew this picture to represent the vertebrate fauna of the area and my God that drawing sucks so bad. It wasn't even close to representing even half of the known vertebrates, the seals are morbidly obese, the penguin on the beach is a direct shameless tracing of this and for whatever reason I added a moa that isn't known from the Tangahoe (and hadn't even evolved yet). Hell I didn't even spell "Taranaki" right. Upon rediscovering that old drawing and cringing at how awful it is, I decided to remake it, though this new pic looks so different from the original that it may as well be a completely separate artwork.

Unfortunately for me, most of the species shown here didn't have size estimates online or anything so I had to scale the fossils to their living relatives myself (take these with a grain of salt, I'm an amateur at scaling fossil taxa), but these should be roughly correct sizes. Species shown here are:

Procellaria altirostris: The dark seabirds with white face patterns flying over the surface (one in the top left and top center each). This is a fossil species of petrel named in 2021, and is part of a genus that still exists today. The most similar living species to P. altirostris are the white-chinned, spectacled and Westland petrels, though the extinct species differs from them in having shorter wings and a deeper beak. Because its living relatives are very dark black-brown and have white head patterns, I did the same for this species.

Aldiomedes angustirostris: The two white birds with black wings sitting on the surface around the dolphin head. This is an extinct albatross known only from the skull, which shows a longer and narrower beak than living albatrosses. In addition this species is smaller than even the smallest extant albatross. It is believed to have fed mostly on fish (as opposed to the squid-based diet of extant albatrosses), but I depict it scavenging on carrion here since albatrosses will do that.

Macronectes tinae: The big grey bird with a pink beak sitting on the surface and eating the dolphin head. The genus Macronectes still exists today, containing the two giant petrel species that are primarily scavengers. M. tinae is a fossil species with a slightly smaller size and more gracile build than its modern relatives, but is believed to have a similar lifestyle.

Delphinus sp.: The floating head of a dead dolphin getting eaten by birds. A fossilized jaw of a dolphin is known from the Tangahoe Formation and believed to represent a member of either Delphinus or Stenella. This PBDB page further states that fossils of Delphinus delphis (the extant common dolphin) are known from Tangahoe, but I haven't been able to access that "Mckee 1994" source to check for myself. Ironic that the only living species in this picture is the one shown dead.

Unnamed Pelagornithidae: The big white bird whose wings stretch across the top of the picture. According to this paper (McKee 1985) , wing bones of a pelagornithid bird have been found in the Tangahoe Formation, but the didn't classify beyond the family level. The pelagornithids are an extinct family of seabirds with very long wings and teeth-like bits projecting from their beaks, and some species were among the largest flying birds, with wingspans of around 6 meters. No size estimates seem to be given to the Tangahoe pelagorn but by my own scaling, it is apparently much smaller, closer to a pelican or albatross in size (yeah those are some of the biggest extant flying birds but that's tiny by pelagorn standards).

Mesoplodon sp.: The whales breaching out of the water in the background. This PBDB page says fossils of Mesoplodon (a genus of beaked whales that still exists today) are known from Tangahoe, but cite that same source I mentioned in the Delphinus paragraph that I cannot access, thus I don't know what material is found or scale it. I left these whales in an uncertain distance in the background so I can bullshit the size for this exact reason.

Ardenna davealleni: The grey-brown bird with white undersides flying neat the top right. This extinct species of shearwater is known from two fossil skeletons, and the most similar living species to it is the Buller's shearwater, possibly even being its direct ancestor. However, A. davealleni is much bigger, being around the size of Cory's shearwater (the largest extant shearwater, weighing up to 1060 grams).

Eudyptes atatu: The penguins with red beaks and yellow crests swimming underwater. This is an extinct member of the crested penguin genus, whose modern species include the rockhopper penguins. Unlike modern crested penguins which have deep beaks to accommodate a bristly tongue for catching krill, E. atatu had a slender beak, suggesting this early species was eating something else.

Eomonachus belegaerensis:The two seals underwater near the center. This is an extinct monk seal named in 2020, and the first monk seal known from the Southern Hemisphere. In my drawing from 4 years ago linked at the start of this text, I drew this species to be ridiculously fat as New Zealand is colder than the habitats of modern monk seals. However I have since learned that Pliocene New Zealand was actually warmer than it is today, so Eomonachus probably looked more like a normal monk seal as shown here than the obese orbs I drew back then that are probably boiling to death.

Eudyptula wilsonae: The tiny blue penguins diving near the bottom. An extinct species in the same genus as the fairy penguin, this species is known from two fossilized skulls showing more slender beaks than their modern relatives. I gave them the same deep blue and white plumage as living Eudyptula penguins, but made the white cover more of the face based on this .

Pristiophorus sp.: The big saw-snouted fish in the bottom left. This genus of sawshark (which are sharks woth saw like snouts, duh) still has multiple living species, but large fossil rostral denticles (snout teeth) from Tangahoe suggest a much bigger Pristiophorus than modern ones was living there, perhaps reaching 3 meters in length. These fossils were originally assigned to a fossil species named P. lanceolatus, but currently that species is deemed dubious.

Tetrosomus sp.: The fucked up-looking bastard fish at the bottom center being stared at by a penguin in shock at how ugly this animal is. This warm-water genus of boxfish still exists today, and a fossil specimen has been found at Tangahoe, showing the area was warmer than it is today. Boxfish are weird fish, some of which have cube-shaped bodies, but this genus is some hideous triangular thing when viewed from the front.

Ikamauius ensifer: The sawshark in the bottom right. Yeah, Tangahoe has more than one sawshark species. Ikamauius is an extinct genus characterized by its serrated rostral denticles, though they are so small in this picture that you can't tell here anyways. Its closest living relative is Pliotrema, the six-gilled sawsharks, which is what this reconstruction is based mostly on. With 18-millimeter long rostral denticles and considering that Pliotrema denticles are around 1% their body length, I imagine Ikamauius was around 1.8 meters long.

Otodus megalodon: The massive shark barely visible in the background. I imagine you already know what megalodon is so i won't bother explaining. Based on the title of a 1994 paper by one JWA McKee that I can't find anywhere online, fossil vertebrae of this giant shark are known from Tangahoe. However, a single sentence in this paper says the fossils in question are now in a private collection and can't be studied.

Description
I intended to get this drawing done for Taranaki Anniversary Day (which was March 11 this year) but it ended up taking way longer than I thought (who would've thought a file with over 290 layers would lag and crash regularly). The Tangahoe Formation is a Pliocene-aged site in Taranaki, New Zealand which was a shallow marine environment at that time (around 3 million years ago), and fossils of various seabirds, fish and marine mammals are known from there. Four years ago I drew this picture to represent the vertebrate fauna of the area and my God that drawing sucks so bad. It wasn't even close to representing even half of the known vertebrates, the seals are morbidly obese, the penguin on the beach is a direct shameless tracing of this and for whatever reason I added a moa that isn't known from the Tangahoe (and hadn't even evolved yet). Hell I didn't even spell "Taranaki" right. Upon rediscovering that old drawing and cringing at how awful it is, I decided to remake it, though this new pic looks so different from the original that it may as well be a completely separate artwork.

Unfortunately for me, most of the species shown here didn't have size estimates online or anything so I had to scale the fossils to their living relatives myself (take these with a grain of salt, I'm an amateur at scaling fossil taxa), but these should be roughly correct sizes. Species shown here are:

Procellaria altirostris: The dark seabirds with white face patterns flying over the surface (one in the top left and top center each). This is a fossil species of petrel named in 2021, and is part of a genus that still exists today. The most similar living species to P. altirostris are the white-chinned, spectacled and Westland petrels, though the extinct species differs from them in having shorter wings and a deeper beak. Because its living relatives are very dark black-brown and have white head patterns, I did the same for this species.

Aldiomedes angustirostris: The two white birds with black wings sitting on the surface around the dolphin head. This is an extinct albatross known only from the skull, which shows a longer and narrower beak than living albatrosses. In addition this species is smaller than even the smallest extant albatross. It is believed to have fed mostly on fish (as opposed to the squid-based diet of extant albatrosses), but I depict it scavenging on carrion here since albatrosses will do that.

Macronectes tinae: The big grey bird with a pink beak sitting on the surface and eating the dolphin head. The genus Macronectes still exists today, containing the two giant petrel species that are primarily scavengers. M. tinae is a fossil species with a slightly smaller size and more gracile build than its modern relatives, but is believed to have a similar lifestyle.

Delphinus sp.: The floating head of a dead dolphin getting eaten by birds. A fossilized jaw of a dolphin is known from the Tangahoe Formation and believed to represent a member of either Delphinus or Stenella. This PBDB page further states that fossils of Delphinus delphis (the extant common dolphin) are known from Tangahoe, but I haven't been able to access that "Mckee 1994" source to check for myself. Ironic that the only living species in this picture is the one shown dead.

Unnamed Pelagornithidae: The big white bird whose wings stretch across the top of the picture. According to this paper (McKee 1985) , wing bones of a pelagornithid bird have been found in the Tangahoe Formation, but the didn't classify beyond the family level. The pelagornithids are an extinct family of seabirds with very long wings and teeth-like bits projecting from their beaks, and some species were among the largest flying birds, with wingspans of around 6 meters. No size estimates seem to be given to the Tangahoe pelagorn but by my own scaling, it is apparently much smaller, closer to a pelican or albatross in size (yeah those are some of the biggest extant flying birds but that's tiny by pelagorn standards).

Mesoplodon sp.: The whales breaching out of the water in the background. This PBDB page says fossils of Mesoplodon (a genus of beaked whales that still exists today) are known from Tangahoe, but cite that same source I mentioned in the Delphinus paragraph that I cannot access, thus I don't know what material is found or scale it. I left these whales in an uncertain distance in the background so I can bullshit the size for this exact reason.

Ardenna davealleni: The grey-brown bird with white undersides flying neat the top right. This extinct species of shearwater is known from two fossil skeletons, and the most similar living species to it is the Buller's shearwater, possibly even being its direct ancestor. However, A. davealleni is much bigger, being around the size of Cory's shearwater (the largest extant shearwater, weighing up to 1060 grams).

Eudyptes atatu: The penguins with red beaks and yellow crests swimming underwater. This is an extinct member of the crested penguin genus, whose modern species include the rockhopper penguins. Unlike modern crested penguins which have deep beaks to accommodate a bristly tongue for catching krill, E. atatu had a slender beak, suggesting this early species was eating something else.

Eomonachus belegaerensis:The two seals underwater near the center. This is an extinct monk seal named in 2020, and the first monk seal known from the Southern Hemisphere. In my drawing from 4 years ago linked at the start of this text, I drew this species to be ridiculously fat as New Zealand is colder than the habitats of modern monk seals. However I have since learned that Pliocene New Zealand was actually warmer than it is today, so Eomonachus probably looked more like a normal monk seal as shown here than the obese orbs I drew back then that are probably boiling to death.

Eudyptula wilsonae: The tiny blue penguins diving near the bottom. An extinct species in the same genus as the fairy penguin, this species is known from two fossilized skulls showing more slender beaks than their modern relatives. I gave them the same deep blue and white plumage as living Eudyptula penguins, but made the white cover more of the face based on this .

Pristiophorus sp.: The big saw-snouted fish in the bottom left. This genus of sawshark (which are sharks woth saw like snouts, duh) still has multiple living species, but large fossil rostral denticles (snout teeth) from Tangahoe suggest a much bigger Pristiophorus than modern ones was living there, perhaps reaching 3 meters in length. These fossils were originally assigned to a fossil species named P. lanceolatus, but currently that species is deemed dubious.

Tetrosomus sp.: The fucked up-looking bastard fish at the bottom center being stared at by a penguin in shock at how ugly this animal is. This warm-water genus of boxfish still exists today, and a fossil specimen has been found at Tangahoe, showing the area was warmer than it is today. Boxfish are weird fish, some of which have cube-shaped bodies, but this genus is some hideous triangular thing when viewed from the front.

Ikamauius ensifer: The sawshark in the bottom right. Yeah, Tangahoe has more than one sawshark species. Ikamauius is an extinct genus characterized by its serrated rostral denticles, though they are so small in this picture that you can't tell here anyways. Its closest living relative is Pliotrema, the six-gilled sawsharks, which is what this reconstruction is based mostly on. With 18-millimeter long rostral denticles and considering that Pliotrema denticles are around 1% their body length, I imagine Ikamauius was around 1.8 meters long.

Otodus megalodon: The massive shark barely visible in the background. I imagine you already know what megalodon is so i won't bother explaining. Based on the title of a 1994 paper by one JWA McKee that I can't find anywhere online, fossil vertebrae of this giant shark are known from Tangahoe. However, a single sentence in this paper says the fossils in question are now in a private collection and can't be studied.