Macropus pearsoni (Bartholomai, 1973:366)
Pearson's kangaroo (proposed)
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Fissuridon pearsoni Bartholomai, 1973:366 (basionym)
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Late Pleistocene
Distribution
Australia
Anatomy & Morphology
It weighed an estimated 150kg (Johnson & Prideaux, 2004:557; Johnson, 2006:18).
Biology & Ecology
It ate grass (Johnson, 2006:18).
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Bartholomai, Alan. (1973). Fissuridon pearsoni, a new fossil macropodid (Marsupialia) from Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 16(3): 365-368.
Other references:
Bartholomai, A. (1975). The genus Macropus Shaw (Marsupialia; Macropodidae) in the upper Cainozoic deposits of Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 17(2): 195-235.
Flannery, Timothy and Archer, Michael. (1982). The taxonomy and distribution of Macropus (Fissuridon) pearsoni (Marsupialia: Macropodidae). Aust. Mammal. 5: 261-265.
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
Molnar, R. E. and Kurz, C. (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.
Roberts RG, et al. (2001) New ages for the last Australian megafauna: Continent-wide extinction about 46,000 years ago. Science 292(5523):1888–1892. [as M. ferragus]
Tedford, R. H., R. T. Wells, and S. F. Barghoorn. (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.
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. (2023). Checklist of the Fossil Mammal Species of Australia and New Guinea. Available from: https://www.australasianpalaeontologists.com/national-fossil-species-lists [Accessed 2 March 2025]
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]
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. (2025). Checklist of the Fossil Mammal Species of Australia and New Guinea. Available from: https://www.australasianpalaeontologists.com/national-fossil-species-lists [Accessed 1 March 2025]