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.
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]