Tjarrpecinus rothi

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Tjarrpecinus rothi
Temporal range: Late Miocene
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Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Dasyuromorphia
Family:† Thylacinidae
Genus:† Tyarrpecinus
Species:
†T. rothi
Binomial name
†Tyarrpecinus rothi
Murray & Megirian, 2000 [1]

Tjarrpecinus rothi is an extinct thylacinid marsupial that lived during the late Miocene and has been found at the Alcoota scientific reserve in the Northern Territory. The specific name honors Karl Roth for his contributions to the natural history of central Australia.

Thylacinidae family of mammals

Thylacinidae is an extinct family of carnivorous, superficially dog-like marsupials from the order Dasyuromorphia. The only species to survive into modern times was the thylacine, which became extinct in 1936.

Marsupial Members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. Well-known marsupials include kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, possums, opossums, wombats, and Tasmanian devils.

Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to these species is that most of the young are carried in a pouch. Well-known marsupials include kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, possums, opossums, wombats, and Tasmanian devils. Some lesser-known marsupials are the dunnarts, potoroos and cuscuses. Marsupials represent the clade originating from the last common ancestor of extant metatherians. Like other mammals in the Metatheria, they give birth to relatively undeveloped young that often reside in a pouch located on their mothers’ abdomen for a certain amount of time. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur on the Australian continent. The remaining 100 are found in the Americas — primarily in South America, but thirteen in Central America, and one in North America, north of Mexico.

The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Charles Lyell; its name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene.

Contents

T. rothi is known from a holotype left maxillary fragment and was reassembled from a concentration of small bone and tooth fragments. Most of the fragments exhibit chemical erosion and have a layer of calcite.

Taxonomy

The description of a new species and genus was published in 2000, the results of examination of fossil material discovered at the "Blast Site", associated with the Bullock Creek fossil beds in the Northern Territory. The describing authors, Peter F. Murray and Dirk Megirian, assigned the name Tjarrpecinus to the new thylacinid genus, combining the Ancient Greek kynos, alluding to the canid family of dogs and wolves, and tyarrpa from the Arrente language for "cracked", alluding to the condition of the holotype. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 Murray, P.; Megirian, D. (2000). "Two New Genera and Three New Species of Thylacinidae (Marsupialia) from the Miocene of the Northern Territory, Australia". The Beagle : occasional papers of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences. 16: 145–162.


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