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,[2] in a clade initially named as subgenus Macropus (Macropus) Dawson & Flannery.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5] A larger macropod than any modern species, the standing height was estimated to be over two metres.[6]
Macropus pan | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
Order: | Diprotodontia |
Family: | Macropodidae |
Genus: | Macropus |
Species: | †M. pan
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Binomial name | |
†Macropus pan |
References
edit- ^ De Vis, C. W.. (1895). "A review of the fossil jaws of the Macropodidae in the Queensland". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 20 (75–133). Linnean Society of New South Wales.
- ^ "Macropus (Macropus) pan De Vis 1895 (kangaroo)". Fossilworks. Gateway to the Paleobiology Database.
- ^ Dawson, L.; Flannery, T. (1985). "Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Status of Living and Fossil Kangaroos and Wallabies of the Genus Macropus Shaw (Macropodidae: Marsupialia), with a New Subgeneric Name for the Larger Wallabies". Australian Journal of Zoology. 33 (4): 473–498. doi:10.1071/ZO9850473.
- ^ Flannery, T.F. (1985). "Re-examination of the Quanbun Local Fauna, A Late Cenozoic Vertebrate Fauna from Western Australia". Records of the Western Australian Museum. 12 (2): 193–196.
- ^ Louys, J.; Price, G. (2013). "The Chinchilla Local Fauna: an exceptionally rich and well-preserved Pliocene vertebrate assemblage from fluviatile deposits of south-eastern Queensland, Australia" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. doi:10.4202/app.00042.2013.
- ^ McNamara, K.; Murray, P. (2010). Prehistoric Mammals. Western Australian Museum. ISBN 9781920843601.