Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T13:11:19.282Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Durudawirines, a new group of phalangeroid marsupials from the Miocene of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Kirsten Crosby  and
Michael Archer
Kirsten Crosby
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
Michael Archer
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia Australian Museum, 6 College St, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia,
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The early Miocene Durudawiri inusitatus new genus and species (Marsupialia: Phalangeroidea) is described from the Riversleigh World Heritage Property in northwestern Queensland. It appears to represent the plesiomorphic sister group of the late Oligocene species of Miralina from South Australia. Its molar morphology is not as complex as that of species of Miralina or ektopodontids, but it is more complex than that of phalangerids. The degree of morphological difference between species of Durudawiri and Miralina suggests subfamilial distinction for the two groups. Strange cusps on the upper molars could be interpreted as either large neometaconules and paraconules, or lingually-displaced metacones and paracones with very large stylar cusps on the buccal shelf.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , March 2000 , pp. 327 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aplin, K. P., and Archer, M. 1987. Recent advances in marsupial systematics with a new syncretic classification, p. xv–lxxii. In Archer, M. (ed.), Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution. Surrey Beatty & Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Archer, M. 1976. Phascolarctid origins and the potential of the selenodont molar in the evolution of diprotodont marsupials. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 17:367–371.Google Scholar
Archer, M., Hand, S. J., and Godthelp, H. 1994. Riversleigh, the story of animals in ancient rainforests of inland Australia. Reed Books, Melbourne, 264 p.Google Scholar
Archer, M., Hand, S. J., and Godthelp, H. 1995. Tertiary environmental and biotic change in Australia, p. 77–90. In Vrba, E. S., Denton, G. H., Partridge, T. C., and Burckle, L. H. (eds.), Paleoclimate and evolution, with an emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Archer, M., Tedford, R. H., and Rich, T. H. 1987. The Pilkipildridae, a new family and four new species of ?petauroid possums (Marsupialia: Phalangerida) from the Australian Miocene, p. 607–627. In Archer, M. (ed.), Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution. Surrey Beatty & Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Archer, M., Godthelp, H., Hand, S. J., and Megirian, D. 1989. Fossil mammals of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland: preliminary overview of biostratigraphy, correlation and environmental change. Australian Zoolologist, 25:29–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, M., Hand, S. J., Godthelp, H., and Creaser, P. 1997. Correlation of the Cainozoic sediments of the Riversleigh World Heritage fossil property, Queensland, Australia, p. 131–152. In Aguilar, J.-P., Legendre, S., and Michaux, J. (eds.), Actes du Congres Biochrom '97. Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Institut de Montpellier: Montpellier, France.Google Scholar
Cooke, B. N. 1997. Two new balbarine kangaroos and lower molar evolution within the subfamily. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 41:269–280.Google Scholar
Creaser, P. 1997. Oligo-Miocene sediments of Riversleigh: the potential significance of topography. Memiors of the Queensland Museum, 41:303–314.Google Scholar
Dymock, J. W. F. 1993. Something deep and rich: indigenous and post contact environment and heritage materials relevant to the Lawn Hill/Riversleigh district of Queensland. Unpublished report for the Department of Environment and Heritage Queensland.Google Scholar
Flannery, T. F. 1989. Evolution of the Macropodoidea; a study in convergence, p. 1–46. In Grigg, G., Jarman, P., and Hume, I. (eds.), Kangaroos, Wallabies and Rat-kangaroos. Surrey Beatty and Sons, Sydney.Google Scholar
Flannery, T. F., and Archer, M. 1987. Hypsiprymnodon bartholomaii (Marsupialia: Potoroidae), a new species from the Miocene Dwornamor Local Fauna and a reassessment of the phylogenetic position of H. moschatus , p. 749–758. In Archer, M. (ed.), Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution. Surrey Beatty & Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Flannery, T. F., and Rich, T. H. V. 1986. Macropodoids from the middle Miocene Namba Formation, South Australia, and the homology of some dental structures in kangaroos. Journal of Palaeontology, 60:418–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, T. F., Archer, M. and Maynes, G. 1987. The phylogenetic relationships of living phalangerids (Phalangeroidea: Marsupialia) with a suggested new taxonomy, p. 477–506. In Archer, M. (ed.), Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution. Surrey Beatty & Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Flower, W. H. 1867. On the development and succession of teeth in the Marsupialia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 157:631–641.Google Scholar
Luckett, W. P. 1993. An ontogenetic assessment of dental homologies in therian mammals, p. 182–204. In Szalay, F. S., Novacek, M. J., and McKenna, M.C. (eds.), Mammal Phylogeny: Mesozoic Differentiation, Multituberculates, Monotremes, Early Therians and Marsupials. Springer-Verlag, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, L. G., Case, J. A., and Woodburne, M. O. 1990. Phylogenetic relationships of the families of marsupials, p. 433–505. In Genoways, H. H. (ed.), Current Mammalogy. Volume 2. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Ride, W. D. L. 1971. On the fossil evidence of the evolution of the Macropodidae. Australian Zoologist, 16:6–16.Google Scholar
Swofford, D. L. 1993. PAUP: Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony, Version 3.1. Computer program distributed by the Illinois Natural History Survey, Champagne, Illinois.Google Scholar
Tedford, R. H., and Woodburne, M. O. 1987. The Ilariidae, a new family of vombatiform marsupials from Miocene strata of South Australia and an evaluation of the homology of molar cusps in the Diprotodontia, p. 401–418. In Archer, M. (ed.), Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution. Surrey Beatty & Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Tedford, R. H., Archer, M., Bartholomai, A., Plane, M., Pledge, N. S., Rich, T., Rich, P., and Wells, R. T. 1977. The discovery of Miocene vertebrates, Lake Frome area, South Australia. Bureau of Mineral Resources Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics 2:53–57.Google Scholar
Wiley, E. O., Seigel-Causey, D., Brooks, D. R., and Funk, V. A. 1991. The Complete Cladist: a Primer of Phylogenetic Procedures. The University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Special Publication 19.Google Scholar
Woodburne, M. O., and Clemens, W. A. 1986. A new genus of Ektopodontidae and additional comments on Ektopodon serratus , p. 10–42. In Woodburne, M. O. and Clemens, W. A. (eds.), Revision of the Ektopodontidae (Mammalia: Phalangeroidea) of the Australian Neogene. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences, 131.Google Scholar
Woodburne, M. O., Pledge, N. S., and Archer, M. 1987. The Miralinidae, a new family and two new species of phalangeroid marsupials from Miocene strata of South Australia, p. 581–602 In Archer, M. (ed.), Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution. Surrey Beatty & Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Woodburne, M. O., MacFadden, B. J., Case, J. A., Springer, M. S., Pledge, N. S., Power, J. D., Woodburne, J. M., and Springer, K. B. 1994. Land mammal biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy of the Etadunna Formation (late Oligocene) of South Australia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 13:483–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar