Protemnodon brehus (Owen, 1874)
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonyms: Sthenurus brehus Owen, 1874; Protemnodon mimas Owen, 1874
Considered valid by Travouillon et al. (2023, 2024), but as Invalid (nomen dubium) by (Kerr et al., 2024:189-191; Travouillon et al., 2025).
Conservation Status
Invalid (nomen dubium) (see Kerr et al., 2024:189-191)
Last record: Late Pleistocene
Distribution
Australia
Anatomy & Morphology
It weighed an estimated 100kg (Johnson & Prideaux, 2004:557) or 110kg (Johnson, 2006:18) or a mean 110 ± 1.5 (n=3, range 109–111kg) (Helgen et al., 2006).
Biology & Ecology
It was a browser (Johnson, 2006:18).
Hypodigm
Syntypes:
F43303a (Dawson, 1985:66)
BM 43853 (Dawson, 1985:66)
Other specimens:
UCMP 54031 (Dawson, 1985:66)
QMF44627 ("maxilla")
NMV P173087 (Helgen et al., 2006:303)
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Owen, Richard. (1874). On the fossil mammals of Australia.-Part VIII. Family Macropodidae: Genera Macropus, Osphranter, Phascolagus, .Sthenurus, and Protemnodon. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 164: 245-87, pis 20-7.
Other references:
Archer, Michael "Mike". (1978). Quaternary vertebrate faunas from the Texas Caves of southeastern Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 19(1): 61-109.
Armand, L., Ride, W. D. L. and Taylor, G. (2000). The stratigraphy and palaeontology of Teapot Creek, MacLaughlin River, NSW. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 122: 101-121.
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., Merrilees, D. and Porter, J. K. (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.
Bartholomai, A. (1973). The genus Protemnodon Owen (Marsupialia; Macropodidae) in the upper Cainozoic deposits of Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 16(3): 309-363.
Bartholomai, Alan. (1977). The fossil vertebrate fauna from Pleistocene deposits at Cement Mills, Gore, Southeastern Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 18(1): 41-51.
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.
Errey, K. and Flannery, T. F. (1978). The neglected megafaunal sites of the Colongulac region, western Victoria. The Artefact 3: 101-106. [Fossil record of either this species or P. roechus]
Fillios, M., Field, Judith and Charles, B. (2010). Investigating human and megafauna co-occurrence in Australian prehistory: Mode and causality in fossil accumulations at Cuddie Springs. Quaternary International 211(1-2): 123-143.
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.
Helgen, Kristofer M., Wells, Rod T., Kear, Benjamin P., Gerdtz, Wayne R. and Flannery, Timothy F. (2006). Ecological and evolutionary significance of sizes of giant extinct kangaroos. Australian Journal of Zoology 54(4): 293-303. [body weight estimate]
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
Jones, Billie, Janis, Christine and Rayfield, Emily. (2020). Limb proportions indicate Protemnodon’s locomotion was divergent from modern large macropodines. Poster presentation (abstract), p. 46. In: Progressive Palaeontology 2020 Abstract Booklet.
Jones, Billie et al. (2022). Distal Humeral Morphology Indicates Locomotory Divergence in Extinct Giant Kangaroos. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 29: 27-41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-021-09576-3
Kerr, Isaac A. R., Camens, Aaron B., van Zoelen, Jacob D., Worthy, Trevor H. and Prideaux, Gavin J. (2024). Systematics and palaeobiology of kangaroos of the late Cenozoic genus Protemnodon (Marsupialia, Macropodidae). Megataxa 11(1): 1-261. https://doi.org/10.11646/megataxa.11.1.1
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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.
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Price G.J., Webb G.E., Zhao J.-x., Feng Y.-x., Murray A.S., Cooke B.N., Hocknull S.A., Sobbe I.H. 2011 Dating megafaunal extinction on the Pleistocene Darling Downs, eastern Australia: the promise and pitfalls of dating as a test of extinction hypotheses. Quaternary Sci Rev 30(7–8), 899-914.
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ftp://rock.geosociety.org/pub/reposit/2007/2007016.pdf