Macropus pearsoni

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Macropus pearsoni
Temporal range: Pleistocene
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Macropodidae
Genus: Macropus
Species:
M. pearsoni
Binomial name
Macropus pearsoni
(Bartholomai, 1971) [1]
Synonyms

Fissuridon pearsoni

Macropus pearsoni is an extinct Australian vertebrate species belonging to the family Macropodidae, and is in the same genus ( Macropus ) as extant kangaroos. M. pearsoni lived during the Pleistocene. It is known from fossil mandibles collected from Pleistocene beds from the Darling Downs in New South Wales, Lake Kanunka in northeastern South Australia, and the Cape York Peninsula. [2] . it reached a size similar to Macropus titan, which is a mass of 150 kg. [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>Diprotodon</i> Extinct marsupial genus

Diprotodon is an extinct genus of marsupial from the Pleistocene of Australia, containing one species, D. optatum. The earliest finds date to 1.77 million to 780,000 years ago, but most specimens are dated to after 110,000 years ago. Its massive fossils were first unearthed in 1830 in Wellington Caves, New South Wales, before any serious scientists were active on the continent, and were variably guessed to belong to rhinos, elephants, hippos, or dugongs. Diprotodon, formally described by Sir Richard Owen in 1838, was the first named Australian fossil creature, and set Owen on a path to becoming the foremost authority of his time on other marsupials and Australian megafauna so enigmatic to European science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marsupial</span> Infraclass of mammals in the clade Metatheria

Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a pouch. Marsupials include opossums, Tasmanian devils, kangaroos, koalas, wombats, wallabies, bandicoots, and the extinct thylacine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern grey kangaroo</span> Species of kangaroo

The eastern grey kangaroo is a marsupial found in the eastern third of Australia, with a population of several million. It is also known as the great grey kangaroo and the forester kangaroo. Although a big eastern grey male typically weighs around 66 kg (146 lb) and stands almost 2 m tall, the scientific name, Macropus giganteus, is misleading: the red kangaroo of the semi-arid inland is larger, weighing up to 90 kg (200 lb).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parma wallaby</span> Species of marsupial

The parma wallaby is a small, hopping, kangaroo-like mammal native to forests of southeastern Australia. About the size of a stout cat, it lives in dense shrub and is only active at night to feed on grasses and small plants. It is the smallest of the wallabies and carries its young in a pouch like other marsupials. Shy and elusive, it was believed extinct until rediscovery in the 1960s. It is threatened by habitat loss and is easily killed by non-native foxes.

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<i>Phascolarctos</i> Genus of marsupials

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<i>Thylacoleo</i> Extinct genus of marsupials

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<i>Procoptodon</i> Extinct genus of marsupials

Procoptodon is an extinct genus of giant short-faced (sthenurine) kangaroos that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch. P. goliah, the largest known kangaroo species that ever existed, stood at about 2 m (6.6 ft). They weighed about 200–240 kg (440–530 lb). Other members of the genus were smaller, however; Procoptodon gilli was the smallest of all of the sthenurine kangaroos, standing approximately 1 m tall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sthenurinae</span> Extinct subfamily of marsupials

Sthenurinae is a subfamily within the marsupial family Macropodidae, known as 'short faced kangaroos'. No members of this subfamily are extant today, with all becoming extinct by the late Pleistocene. Procoptodon goliah, the largest macropodid known to have existed, was a sthenurine kangaroo, but sthenurines occurred in a range of sizes, with Procoptodon gilli being the smallest at the size of a small wallaby.

<i>Macropus</i> Genus of marsupials

Macropus is a marsupial genus in the family Macropodidae. It has two extant species of large terrestrial kangaroos. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek μάκρος, makros "long" and πους, pous "foot". Thirteen known extinct species are recognised. The type species is the eastern grey kangaroo.

<i>Palorchestes</i> Extinct genus of marsupial

Palorchestes is an extinct genus of terrestrial, herbivorous marsupials of the family Palorchestidae. The genus was endemic to Australia, living from the Miocene through to the Pleistocene epochs.

<i>Sthenurus</i> Extinct genus of marsupials

Sthenurus is an extinct genus of kangaroos. With a length around 3 m (10 ft), some species were twice as large as modern extant species. Sthenurus was related to the better-known Procoptodon. The subfamily Sthenurinae is believed to have separated from its sister taxon, the Macropodinae, halfway through the Miocene, and then its population grew during the Pliocene.

<i>Protemnodon</i> Extinct genus of marsupials

Protemnodon is an extinct genus of megafaunal macropodids that existed in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea in the Pliocene and Pleistocene. It is also called the giant kangaroo.

<i>Simosthenurus</i> Extinct genus of marsupials

Simosthenurus, also referred to as the short-faced kangaroo, is an extinct genus of megafaunal macropods that existed in Australia, specifically Tasmania, during the Pleistocene. Analysis of Simosthenurus fossils has contributed to the finding that there are three lineages of macropods: Sthenurinae, Macropodinae, and Lagostrophinae. The genus Simosthenurus was among the sthenurines.

<i>Propleopus</i> Extinct genus of marsupials

Propleopus is an extinct genus of marsupials. Three species are known: P. chillagoensis from the Plio-Pleistocene, and P. oscillans and P. wellingtonensis from the Pleistocene. In contrast to most other kangaroos, and similar to their small extant relative, the musky rat-kangaroo, they were probably omnivorous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fossil Cave</span> Flooded cave in the Limestone Coast area of South Australia

Fossil Cave (5L81), formerly known as The Green Waterhole, is a cave in the Limestone Coast region of south-eastern South Australia. It is located in the gazetted locality of Tantanoola about 22 kilometres north-west of the city of Mount Gambier, only a few metres from the Princes Highway between Mount Gambier and Millicent. It is popular with cave divers and is notable for being both a unique paleontological site and the "type locality" for very rare crustaceans which to date have been found only in caves and Blue Lake in the Mount Gambier region.

Macropus pan is a species of marsupial that existed during the Pliocene in Australia, known only from fossils located at several sites across Australia. The species is recognised as allied to the modern grey kangaroos, the western Macropus fuliginosus and eastern Macropus giganteus, in a clade initially named as subgenus Macropus (Macropus) Dawson & Flannery. The first description was provided by Charles W. De Vis in 1895, emerging from the author's examination of fossil material held at the Queensland Museum. Fossil specimens of Quanbun local fauna, named for a site in Western Australia, were also identified as this species. The origin of the type specimen was not recorded, although based on comparisons to material with a known provenance it is assumed to have excavated at Chinchilla, Queensland. A larger macropod than any modern species, the standing height was estimated to be over two metres.

Macropus ferragus is an extinct species of kangaroo that lived in Australia during the Late Pleistocene.

References

  1. Bartholomai, Alan (1973). "Fissuridon pearsoni, a new fossil macropodid (Marsupialia) from Queensland". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 16 (3): 365–368.
  2. Australian Mammal Society (1982). Australian Mammal Society. Australian Mammal Society. p. 264.
  3. Janis, Christine M.; Buttrill, Karalyn; Figueirido, Borja (15 October 2014). "Locomotion in Extinct Giant Kangaroos: Were Sthenurines Hop-Less Monsters?". PLOS ONE. 9 (10): e109888. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...9j9888J. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109888 . PMC   4198187 . PMID   25333823.