Ramsayia magna Owen, 1872
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Phascolomys magnus Owen, 1872; Phascolomys curvirostris Owen, 1875
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Late Pleistocene
Distribution
Australia
Anatomy & Morphology
It weighed an estimated 100kg (Johnson & Prideaux, 2004:557; Johnson, 2006:20).
Biology & Ecology
It ate grass (Johnson, 2006:20).
Hypodigm
F5342 (Dawson, 1985:65)
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Owen, Richard. [In Anon.]. (1872). On the fossil mammals of Australia, No. vm [sic]. : Genus Phascolomys; species exceeding the present in size. Nature, Lond. 5 : 503,4.
Other references:
Bartholomai, Alan. (1977). The fossil vertebrate fauna from Pleistocene deposits at Cement Mills, Gore, Southeastern Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 18(1): 41-51.
Dawson, Lyndall. (1981). The status of the taxa of extinct giant wombats (Vombatidae: Marsupialia), and a consideration of vombatid phylogeny. Australian Mammalogy 4(2): 65-79.
Dawson, Lyndall. (1985). Marsupial fossils from Wellington Caves, New South Wales; the historic and scientific significance of the collections in the Australia Museum, Sydney. Records of the Australian Museum 37(2): 55-69.
Johnson, Chris N. (2006). Australia's Mammal Extinctions: A 50 000 Year History. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Cambridge University Press. x + 278 pp. [p. 20]
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
Louys, Julien. (2015). Wombats (Vombatidae: Marsupialia) from the Pliocene Chinchilla Sand, southeast Queensland, Australia. Alcheringa 39 (3): 394-406. [Abstract]
Louys, Julien et al. (2022). Cranial remains of Ramsayia magna from the Late Pleistocene of Australia and the evolution of gigantism in wombats (Marsupialia, Vombatidae). Papers in Palaeontology 8(6): e1475. https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1475
Mahoney, J. A. and Ride, W. D. L. (1975). Index to the genera and species of fossil Mammalia described from Australia and New Guinea between 1838 and 1968. Western Australian Museum Special Publication 6: 1-250.
Molnar, R. E., and C. Kurz. (1997). The distribution of Pleistocene vertebrates on the eastern Darling Downs, based on the Queensland Museum collections. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 117: 107-134.
Owen, Richard [In Anon.]. (1885). The premaxillaries and scalpriform teeth of a large extinct wombat (Phascolomys curvirostris, Ow.). Abstr. Froc. geol. Soc. Lond. no. 476 : 1,2. [See p. 60 of this Index concerning the date of publication of this work.] Republished, 1885, Nature, Lond. 33 : 94. Republished, 1886, Ann. Mago nat. Hist. (5) 17: 289,90.
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]