Congruus kitcheneri (Flannery, 1989:300)
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Wallabia kitcheneri Flannery, 1989:300 (basionym)
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: 44ka-75ka (Warburton & Prideaux, 2021)
Distribution
Western Australia (southwestern), Australia
Fossil remains have been reported from Mammoth Cave (Flannery, 1989), Nullarbor Thylacoleo Caves (Prideaux et al. 2007; Warburton & Prideaux, 2021), and Tight Entrance Cave, units B and D (Ayliffe et. al. 2008).
Anatomy & Morphology
It weighed an estimated 30kg (Johnson & Prideaux, 2004:557; Johnson, 2006:18).
Biology & Ecology
It was a browser (Johnson, 2006:18), and a semiarboreal species (Warburton & Prideaux, 2021).
Hypodigm
Holotype: WAM 66.8.17/WAM 66.9.47 ("partial left and right juvenile dentaries") (Warburton & Prideaux, 2021)
Type locality: probably Mammoth Cave, Western Australia, Australia
Paratypes:
10 as per the original description (Flannery, 1989); but see (Warburton & Prideaux, 2021)
Referred specimens:
See (Warburton & Prideaux, 2021)
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Flannery, Timothy F. (1989). A new species of Wallabia (Macropodinae: Marsupialia) from Pleistocene deposits in Mammoth Cave, southwestern Western Australia. Rec. West. Aust. Mus. 14(3): 299-307.
Other references:
Ayliffe, L. K., G. J. Prideaux, M. I. Bird, R. Grün, R. G. Roberts, G. A. Gully, R. Jones, L. K. Fifield, and R. G. Cresswell. (2008). Age constraints on Pleistocene megafauna at Tight Entrance Cave in southwestern Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews 27: 1784-1788.
Johnson, Chris N. (2006). Australia's Mammal Extinctions: A 50 000 Year History. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Cambridge University Press. x + 278 pp. [p. 18]
Johnson, Chris N. and Prideaux, Gavin J. (2004). Extinctions of herbivorous mammals in the late Pleistocene of Australia in relation to their feeding ecology: no evidence for environmental change as cause of extinction. Australian Ecology 29: 553-557. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2004.01389.x
McNamara, K. J., Long, John A. and and Brimmell, K. (1991). Catalogue of type fossils in the Western Australian Museum. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement No. 39: 1-106.
Prideaux, G.J., J. A. Long, L. K. Ayliffe, J. C. Hellstrom, B. Pillans, W. E. Boles, M. N. Hutchinson, R. G. Roberts, M. L. Cupper, L. J. Arnold, P. D. Devine, and N. M. Warburton. (2007). An arid-adapted middle Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from south-central Australia. Nature 445: 422-425.
Prideaux GJ, et al. (2010) Timing and dynamics of Late Pleistocene mammal extinctions in southwestern Australia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107(51): 22157-22162.
Roberts, Richard G, Flannery, Timothy F., Ayliffe, Linda, Yoshida, Hiroyuki, Olley, Jon M., Prideaux, Gavin J., Laslett, Geoff M., Baynes, Alexander, Smith, M. A., Jones, Rhys I. and Smith, Barton L. (2001). New ages for the last Australian megafauna: Continent-wide extinction about 46,000 years ago. Science 292(5523): 1888-1892. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1060264
Travouillon, Kenny J., Jackson, Stephen, Beck, Robin M. D., Louys, Julien, Cramb, Jonathan, Gillespie, Anna, Black, Karen, Hand, Suzanne, Archer, Michael, Kear, Benjamin, Hocknull, Scott, Phillips, Matthew, McDowell, Matthew, Fitzgerald, Erich M. G., Brewer, Phillipa and Price, Gilbert J. (2024). Checklist of the Fossil Mammal Species of Australia and New Guinea. Available from: https://www.australasianpalaeontologists.com/national-fossil-species-lists [Accessed 24 November 2024]
Warburton, Natalie M. and Prideaux, Gavin J. (2021). The skeleton of Congruus kitcheneri, a semiarboreal kangaroo from the Pleistocene of southern Australia. R. Soc. Open Sci. 8: 202216. doi: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202216(3): .