Zygomaturus trilobus Macleay, 1858a
"gyedarra" (from dreamtime stories) (Bennett, 1872)
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Zygomaturus creedi Krefft, 1873; Nototherium tasmanicum Scott, 1911; Nototherium tasmaniense Noetling, 1912; Zygomaturus tasmanicus
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: 33,000 years ago (source)
Distribution
Australia
Anatomy & Morphology
It weighed an estimated 500kg (Johnson & Prideaux, 2004:557; Johnson, 2006:18).
Biology & Ecology
It was a browser (Johnson, 2006:18).
Hypodigm
QVM1992 GFV73
UCMP LFM124 (Dawson, 1985:66)
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Macleay, W. S. (1858a). In Owen, R. [in Anon.]. Notes on some outline-drawings and photographs of the skull of Zygomaturus trilobus, Macleay, from Australia. Abstracts and Proceedings of the Geological Society of London 12: 49-50.
Other references:
Akerman, K. (1973). Two Aboriginal charms incorporating fossil giant marsupial teeth. The Western Australian Naturalist 12: 139-141. [Sthenurus and Zygomaturus]
Anderson, C. (1933). The Fossil Mammals of Australia. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 58: ix-xxv.
Aplin, K. (1983). A rhinoceran relative of the wombats Zygomaturus trilobus, pp. 58-59. In: Quirk, S. and Archer, M. (eds.). Prehistoric animals of Australia. Sydney: Australian Museum.
Archer, Michael "Mike". (1978). Quaternary vertebrate faunas from the Texas Caves of southeastern Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 19(1): 61-109.
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.
Balme, J. M., D. Merrilees, and J. K. Porter. 1978. Late Quaternary mammal remains, spanning about 30,000 years, from excavations in Devil's Lair, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 61: 33-65.
Balme, J. (1979). Another discovery of Zygomaturus from the Murchison River, Western Australia. Western Australian Naturalist 14(6): 114-115.
Bennett, G. (1872). A Trip to Queensland in search of Fossils. Annals and Magazine of Natural History IX: 314-321.
Black, K (2008). Diversity, Phylogeny and Biostatigraphy of Diprotodontoids (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae, Palorchestidae) from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of New South Wales.
Brown, Steven P. and Wells, Roderick T. (2000). A middle Pleistocene vertebrate fossil assemblage from Cathedral Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 124(2): 91-104.
Camens, Aaron Bruce. (2004). The functional morphology of the manus and pes in two late Pleistocene, quadrupedal, graviportal diprotodontids. Unpublished honours thesis. Flinders University, Adelaide. 183 pp.
Dalgairns, S. N. (1999). A palaeoenvironmental and taphonomic review of the late Pleistocene swamp site at Rocky River, Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Unpublished BSc (Hons) thesis, Flinders University, Adelaide.
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.
De Vis, Charles. (1888 or 1889). Proc. Royal Soc. Queensl. Vol. 5: p. 111, et seq., and plate.
Dodson, John et al. (1993). Humans and megafauna in a late Pleistocene environment from Cuddie Springs, north western New South Wales. Archaeology in Oceania 28(2): 94-99.
Errey, K. and Flannery, T. F. (1978). The neglected megafaunal sites of the Colongulac region, western Victoria. The Artefact 3: 101-106.
Field, J. and Dodson, J. (1999). Late Pleistocene megafauna and archaeology from Cuddie Springs, south-eastern Australia. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 65: 275-301.
Flannery, Timothy F. and Gott, B. (1984). The Spring Creek locality, southwestern Victoria, a late surviving megafaunal assemblage. Australian Zoologist 21(4): 385-422.
Fraser, Rebecca A. and Wells, Roderick T. (2006). The palaeontological excavation and taphonomic investigation of a late Pleistocene fossil deposit in Grant Hall, Naracoorte, South Australia. Alcheringa Special Issue 1, 2006: 147-161.
Gill, E. D. and Banks, M. R. (1956). Cainozoic history of the Mowbray Swamp and other areas of North-Western Tasmania. Records of the Queen Victoria Museum, new series, 6: 1-42.
Groom, Sally. (2001). Treatment of a Skeleton of the Extinct Marsupial Zygomaturus tasmanicus: A Technical Note. AICCM Bulletin 26(1): 26-30. [the first page is unreadable]
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
Hope, J. H. (1984). The Australian Quaternary, pp. 75-81. In: Archer, M. and Clayton, G. (eds.). Vertebrate Zoogeography and Evolution in Australasia (Animals in Space and Time). [Carlisle?] Western Australia: Hesperian Press.
Johnson, Chris. (2006). Australia's Mammal Extinctions: A 50 000 Year History. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Cambridge University Press. x + 278 pp. [p. 17, 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
Keast, A. et al. (1972). Evolution, Mammals and Southern Continents. New York: State University of New York Press.
Krefft, Gerard. (1873). Natural History. Mammals of Australia and their classification. Part 1 Ornithidelphia and Didelphia. The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (November 8th) 697(16): 594-595, supp. pls. 1-2.
Long, John et al. (2002). Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea, One Hundred Million Years of Evolution. Sydney: University of NSW Press.
Lord, C. and Scott, H. H. (1924). A Synopsis of Vertebrate Animals of Tasmania. Hobart: Oldham Beddome and Meredith.
Mackness, B. (1994). Studies of the Late Cainozoic diprotodontid marsupials of Australia 2. The identity of Zygomaturus macleayi Krefft and Z. creedii Krefft. Abstracts of the fourth conference on Australian vertebrate evolution, palaeontology and systematics, Adelaide, 19-21 April, 1993. Records of the South Australian Museum 1994. [Abstract] [concludes that Zygomaturus creedi Krefft, 1873 is a junior synonym of Z. trilobus]
Mackness, B. and Seldon, L. (1994). Three-dimensional analysis of variation in marsupial teeth using computed tomographic scans. Abstracts of the fourth conference on Australian vertebrate evolution, palaeontology and systematics, Adelaide, 19-21 April, 1993. Records of the South Australian Museum 1994. [Abstract] ["The analysis of variation in the diagnostic P3 of Zygomaturus trilobus has been undertaken by means of computer tomography."]
Mackness, B. et al. (1994). The Spring Park Local Fauna, a new Late Tertiary fossil assemblage from northern Australia . Abstracts of the fourth conference on Australian vertebrate evolution, palaeontology and systematics, Adelaide, 19-21 April, 1993. Records of the South Australian Museum 1994. [Abstract] ["Zygomaturus sp. cf. Z. trilobus"]
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.
Marcus, L. F. (1976). The Bingara Fauna: a Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from Murchison County, New South Wales, Australia. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 114: 1-145.
Marshall, Larry G. (1974). Late Pleistocene mammals from the "Keilor Cranium Site", southern Victoria, Australia. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria 35: 63-86.
Macleay, W. S. (1858b). Report of the trustees of the Australian Museum, for the year ending 31 December 1857. N.S.W. Votes Proc. Legis. Assemb., Session 1858 2: 625-626.
McNamara, Ken and Murray, Peter. (2010). Prehistoric Mammals of Western Australia. Welshpool, WA: Western Australian Museum. 107 pp.
Merrilees, D. (1968). Southwestern Australian occurrences of Sthenurus (Marsupialia, Macropodidae) including Sthenurus brownei sp. nov. J. R. Soc. West. Aust. 50: 65-79.
Merrilees, D. (1979). The prehistoric environment in Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 62(3 or 4): 109-128.
Merrilees, D. (1979). The prehistoric environment in Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 62: 109-128.
Murray, P. F. (1978). Australian megamammals: restorations of some late Pleistocene fossil marsupials and a monotreme. The Artefact 3(2): 77-99.
Murray, P. F. (1984). Extinctions Downunder: a bestiary of extinct Australian late Pleistocene monotremes and marsupials. In: Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G. (eds.). Quaternary Extinctions, a Prehistoric Revolution. Tuscon: University of Arizona Press.
Murray, P. F. (1991). The Pleistocene megafauna of Australia, pp. 1071-1164. In: Vickers-Rich, P., Monaghan, J. M., Baird, R. F., and Rich, T. H. Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australiasia. Pioneer Design Studio.
Murray, P. F., and A. Goede. (1977). Pleistocene vertebrate remains from a cave near Montagu, N.W. Tasmania. Records of the Queen Victoria Museum 60: 1-30.
Murray, P., Megirian, D., Rich, T. H., Plane, M., Black, K., Archer, M., Hand, S. and Vickers-Rich, P. (2000). Morphology, systematics and evolution of the marsupial genus Neohelos Stirton (Diprotodontidae, zygomaturinae). Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory Research Report 6(6): 1-141.
Noetling, F. (1912). The Occurrence of Giant Marsupials in Tasmania. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1911: 124-133.
Owen, Richard. (1859). On some outline drawings and photographs of the skull of Zygomaturus trilobus, Macleay (Nototherium, Owen?). Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 15: 168-176.
Owen, Richard. (1871). On the Fossil Mammals of Australia. Part V. Genus Nototherium Owen. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 19: 494-495.
Owen, Richard. (1877). Researches on the Fossil Remains of the Extinct Mammals of Australia; with a notice of the extinct marsupials of England. London: J. Erxleben.
Pate, F. Donald, McDowell, Matthew C., Wells, Rod T. and Smith, Andrew M. (2002). Last recorded evidence for megafauna at Wet Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia 45,000 years ago. Australian Archaeology 54: 53-55.
Pledge, Neville S. (1990). The Upper Fossil Fauna of the Henschke Fossil Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum (Proceedings of the De Vis Symposium) 28(1): 247-262.
Price, Gilbert J. (2007). Exploring Australian Plio-Pleistocene megafauna chronologies: pre-human geographic range contractions of Diprotodon and Zygomaturus (Diprotodontidae, Marsupialia). 5th Southern Connection Conference, South Australia, 21-25 January 2007. 54.
Prideaux, G. J., R. G. Roberts, D. Megirian, K. E. Westaway, J. C. Hellstrom, and J. M. Olley. (2007). Mammalian responses to Pleistocene climate change in southeastern Australia. Geology 35: 33-36.
Prideaux, Gavin J. et al. (2010). Timing and dynamics of Late Pleistocene mammal extinctions in southwestern Australia. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107(51): 22157-22162.
Reed, E. H. (2006). In Situ Taphonomic Investigation of Pleistocene Large Mammal Bone Deposits from The Ossuaries, Victoria Fossil Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia. Helictite 39(1): 5-15. [subfossil record]
Reed, Elizabeth H. and Bourne, Steven J. (2000). Pleistocene fossil vertebrate sites of the south east region of South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 124(2): 61-90.
Reed, Elizabeth H. and Bourne, Steven J. (2009). Pleistocene Fossil Vertebrate Sites of the South East Region of South Australia II. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 133(1): 30-40.
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
Scott, H. H. (1911). Natural history and osteology. Pt. 1. Nototherium tasmanicum sp. nov. In: On the Discovery of a Nototherium in Tasmania (Scott, H. H. and Harrison, K. M.). Tasmanian Naturalist 2: 64-68, 3 pls.
Scott, H. H. (1912). Nototherium Tasmanicum.—A Conjectural Restoration. Examiner, Saturday, 24 August, p. 9.
Scott, H. H. (1915). A Monograph of Nototherium Tasmanicum (Genus—OWEN: Sp. nov.). Tasmania Department of Mines Geological Survey Record No. 4: iii + 47 pp, 22 pls.
Scott, H. H. and Lord, C. E. (1920a). Studies in Tasmanian mammals, living and extinct. Number I. Nototherium mitchelli (a marsupial rhinoceros). Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1920: 13-15.
Scott, H. H. and Lord, C. E. (1920b). Studies in Tasmanian mammals, living and extinct. Number II. Section 1: The history of the genus Nototherium. Section 2: The osteology of the cervical vertebrae of Nototherium mitchelli. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1920: 17-32.
Scott, H. H. and Lord, C. E. (1920c). Studies in Tasmanian mammals, living and extinct. Number III. Nototherium mitchelli. Its evolutionary trend-the skull, and such structures as related to the nasal horn. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1920: 76-96.
Scott, H. H. and Lord, C. E. (1920d). Studies in Tasmanian mammals, living and extinct. Number IV. Nototherium mitchelli. Appendicular skeleton, including the manus and pes (hitherto unknown). Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1920: 97-113.
Scott, H. H. and Lord, C. E. (1921). Nototheria and allied animals-a rejoinder. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1921: 1-5.
Scott, H. H. and Lord, C. E. (1925). Tasmanian giant marsupials. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1925: 1-4.
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.
Tedford, R.H., Wells, R.T., and Barghoorn, S.F. (1992). Tirari Formation and contained faunas, Pliocene of the Lake Eyre Basin, South Australia. The Beagle, Records of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences 9: 173-194. [Zygomaturus sp. cf. Zygomaturus trilobus]
Tindale, N. B., Fenner, F. J. and Hall, F. J. (1935). Mammal bone beds of probable Pleistocene age, Rocky River, Kangaroo Island. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 59: 103-106.
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]
Turney, Chris S. M., Flannery, Timothy F., Roberts, Richard G., Reid, Craig, Fifield, L. Keith, Higham, Tom F. G., Jacobs, Zenobia, Kemp, Noel, Colhoun, Eric A., Kalin, Robert M. and Ogle, Neil. (2008). Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, implicate human involvement in their extinction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 105(34): 12150-12153.
Van Huet, Sanja. (1999). The taphonomy of the Lancefield swamp megafaunal accumulation, Lancefield, Victoria. In: Baynes, Alexander and Long, John A. (eds.). Papers in vertebrate palaeontology. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 57: 331-340.
Wakefield, Norman A. (1967). Preliminary report on McEachern's Cave, S.W. Victoria. The Victorian Naturalist 84(12): 363-383.
Webb, Steve. (2009). Late Quaternary distribution and biogeography of the southern Lake Eyre basin (SLEB) megafauna, South Australia. Boreas 38: 25-38.
Wellington, Susan and Milne, Nick. (1999). The functional morphology of the marsupial hind limb in the Diprotodontidae and some extant species. Abstracts from the 6th CAVEPS, Perth, 7-11 July, 1997. In: Baynes, Alexander and Long, John A. (eds.). Papers in vertebrate palaeontology. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 57: 422.
Wells, Rod T. (1975). Reconstructing the Past: Excavations in Fossil Caves. Australian Natural History 18(6): 208-211.
Wells, Rod T., R. Grün, J. Sullivan, M. S. Forbes, S. N. Dalgairns, E. A. Bestland, E. J. Rhodes, K. E.Walshe, N. A. Spooner, and S. Eggins. (2006). Late Pleistocene megafauna site at Black Creek Swamp, Flinders Chase National Park, Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Alcheringa Special Issue 1: 367-387.
Wells, Rod T., Moriarty, K. and Williams, D. L. G. (1984). The fossil vertebrate deposits of Victoria Fossil Cave Naracoorte: an introduction to the geology and fauna. The Australian Zoologist 21(4): 305-333.
Westaway, Michael C., Olley, Jon and Grün, Rainer. (2017). At least 17,000 years of coexistence: Modern humans and megafauna at the Willandra Lakes, South-Eastern Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews 157: 206-211. [Abstract]
White, J. Peter and Flannery, Tim. (1995). Late Pleistocene fauna at Spring Creek, Victoria: A re-evaluation. Australian Archaeology 40: 13-17. [link to pdf copy at bottom of the page]
Whitley, G. P. (1966). Some early references to the extinct marsupial, Zygomaturus. Australian Zoologist 13: 228-230.
ftp://rock.geosociety.org/pub/reposit/2007/2007016.pdf
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2017/01/aboriginal-australians-co-existed-with-the-megafauna-for-at-least-17,000-years?adbsc=social_20170112_69339806&adbid=10154250154693339&adbpl=fb&adbpr=100614418338
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/21870/zygomaturus-trilobus