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Congruus kitcheneri (Flannery, 1989:300)

 

 

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Wallabia kitcheneri Flannery, 1989:300

 

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

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): .

 

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