Sedophascolomys medius Owen, 1872
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Phascolomys medius Owen, 1872; Lasiorhinus medius Owen, 1872
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Late Pleistocene
Distribution
Australia (including New South Wales)
Anatomy & Morphology
It weighed an estimated 50kg (Johnson & Prideaux, 2004:557; Johnson, 2006:20).
Biology & Ecology
It ate grass (Johnson, 2006:20).
Hypodigm
UCMP 45148 (Dawson, 1985:65)
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Owen, Richard. [In Anon.] (1872a). On the fossil mammals of Australia, No. vm [sic]. : Genus Phascolomys; species exceeding the present in size. Nature, Lond. 5: 503-504.
Other references:
Cupper M.L., Duncan J. 2006 Last glacial megafaunal death assemblage and early human occupation at Lake Menindee, southeastern Australia. Quaternary Research 66(2): 332-341.
Dawson, Lyndall. (1983). On the uncertain generic status and phylogenetic relationships of the large extinct vombatid species Phascolomys medius Owen, 1872 (Marsupialia : Vombatidae). Australian Mammalogy 6(1): 5-13.
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.
Hocknull, Scott A. et al. (2020). Extinction of eastern Sahul megafauna coincides with sustained environmental deterioration. Nature Communications 11: 2250. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15785-w
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]
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.
Mitchell, T. L. (1838). Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales. Vol. 1. London: T. & W. Boone, 343 pp. [relevant citation?]
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. (1872b). On the fossil mammals of Australia, Part IV: Genus Phascolomys, Geoffr. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 172: 173-196.
Smith F.A., Lyons S.K., Ernest S.K.M., Jones K.E., Kaufman D.M., Dayan T., Marquet P.A., Brown J.H., Haskell J.P. 2003 Body mass of late Quaternary mammals. Ecology 84(12), 3403-3403.
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]
Turnbull, William D; Lundelius, Ernest L and Tedford, Richard H. (1992). A Pleistocene marsupial fauna from Limeburner's Point, Victoria, Australia. The Beagle: Records of the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory 9: 143-171. [Abstract]