Propleopus
| Propleopus Temporal range: Pliocene - Pleistocene
| |
|---|---|
| File:Diagram of the holotype of Propleopus oscillans.png | |
| Diagram of the holotype of P. oscillans | |
| Scientific classification Edit this classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
| Order: | Diprotodontia |
| Family: | Hypsiprymnodontidae |
| Genus: | †Propleopus Longman, 1924[1] |
| Type species | |
| Triclis oscillans | |
| Species[2] | |
| |
Propleopus is an extinct genus of marsupials. The genus contains three species: P. chillagoensis from the Plio-Pleistocene, and P. oscillans and P. wellingtonensis from the Pleistocene.[4]
Discovery and naming
[edit | edit source]The type species Propleopus oscillans was first named under the genus Triclis by Charles Walter De Vis in 1888.[3] Because the German entomologist Hermann Loew had already named the genus Triclis for a robber fly in 1851, Albert Heber Longman named a replacement name Propleopus in 1924, combining the prefix pró (πρό, 'before') with pleopus, the latter in reference to the junior synonym of Hypsiprymnodon moschatus: Pleopus nudicaudatus named by Richard Owen in 1877.[1] In 1978 and 1985, Archer and colleagues named two more species, P. chillagoensis and P. wellingtonensis, and provided a taxonomic revision of the genus.[2]
Description
[edit | edit source]
In contrast to most other kangaroos, and similar to their small extant relative, the musky rat-kangaroo, they were probably omnivorous and quadrupedal.[5] Propleopus is estimated to have weighed around 35.5–47.1 kilograms (78–104 lb).[6]
References
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- John A. Long et al.: Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2003, Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)..
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- THE GIANT RAT-KANGAROO PROPLEOPUS OSCILLANS (DE VIS)[permanent dead link]
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