Propalorchestes

Propalorchestes
Temporal range: Miocene
Skull of Propalorchetes novaculacephalus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: †Palorchestidae
Genus: †Propalorchestes
Murray, 1987[1]
Type species
Propalorchestes novaculacephalus
Murray, 1986

Propalorchestes is a fossil genus of palorchestid marsupial that existed in Australia during the Miocene epoch.

Overview

The type species is Propalorchestes novaculacephalus. The genus is probably ancestral to Palorchestes and resembles Ngapakaldia, another palorchestid that existed during the Miocene epoch.[1] Evidence for the transitional connection between earlier and later phylogenies was discovered amongst the Riversleigh fauna, including a more complete maxilla within the unworn dentition of a juvenile.[2]

The marsupial appears to have existed from the early to mid Miocene in material obtained in north-eastern Queensland, in fossil deposits at Riversleigh.[2]

A largely complete cranium, providing anatomical evidence of the rostral morphology that distinguished the lineage of Propalorchestes and Palorchestes from similar groups of the diprotodont order of marsupials. The dentition of the specimen links the form of molars found in the early wynyardiids with those of the palorchestids.[3]

The type species and genus were named in 1986 by Peter F. Murray, conducting palaeontological research at the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, along with a second and possible third species proposed in 1990.[4][5]

The genus name is Latinised Greek, combining pro with Palorchestes to indicate its ancestral position to that genus. Murray repeats the translation of Richard Owen's genus as "old dancer" with the contemporary reconception as a "marsupial tapir",[6] although Owen gave his own etymology as a combination of "ancient" and "leaper" to the fossil fragments he thought were of a giant kangaroo.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ a b Murray, P.F. (28 January 1986). "Propalorchestes novaculacephalus gen. e tet sp.nov., a new palorchestid (Diprotodontoidea: Marsupialia) from the Middle Miocene Camfield Beds, Northern Territory, Australia". The Beagle: Occasional Papers of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences. 3: 195–211.
  2. ^ a b Black, K. (January 2006). "Description of new material for Propalorchestes novaculacephalus (Marsupialia: Palorchestidae) from the mid Miocene of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 30 (2): 351–361. doi:10.1080/03115510608619322. S2CID 129173780.
  3. ^ Trusler, P.W.; Sharp, A.C. (2016). "Description of new cranial material of Propalorchestes (Marsupialia: Palorchestidae) from the Middle Miocene Camfield Beds, Northern Territory, Australia" (PDF). Memoirs of Museum Victoria. 74: 291–324. doi:10.24199/j.mmv.2016.74.21.
  4. ^ "Fossilworks: Propalorchestes ponticulus". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  5. ^ "Fossilworks: Propalorchestes". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  6. ^ a b Murray, P. (1990). "Primitive marsupial tapirs (Propalorchestes novaculacephalus Murray and P. ponticulus sp. nov.) from the mid-Miocene of North Australia (Marsupialia: Palorchestidae)". The Beagle: Occasional Papers of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences. 7 (2): 39–51.
  7. ^ Owen, R. (1874). "On the fossil mammals of Australia. Part IX. Family Macropodidae: Genera Macropus, Pachysaigon, Leptosaigon, Procoptodon, and Palorchestes". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 164 (783–803). Royal Society of London.
  8. ^ Mackness, B.S. (2008). "Reconstructing Palorchestes (Marsupialia: Palorchestidae) from Giant Kangaroo to Marsupial 'Tapir'". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 130. Linnean Society of New South Wales.: 21–36.