Protemnodon roechus Owen, 1874
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Protemnodon antaeus Owen, 1877
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 166kg (Helgen et al., 2006:295; Johnson, 2006:18).
Biology & Ecology
It was a browser (Johnson, 2006:18).
Hypodigm
NMV P26570 (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: 245-287, pls 20-27.
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.
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.
Butler, K., Louys, J. and Travouillon, K. (2014). Extending dental mesowear analyses to Australian marsupials, with applications to six Plio-Pleistocene kangaroos from southeast Queensland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 408(2014): 11-25. [Abstract]
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. brehus]
Flannery, Timothy F. (1984). Re-examination of the Quabun Local Fauna, A Late Cenozoic Vertebrate Fauna from Western Australia. Rec. West. Aust. Mus. 11(2): 119-128.
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]
Jankowski, N. R., Gully, G. A., Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R. G. and Prideaux, G. J. (2016). A late Quaternary vertebrate deposit in Kudjal Yolgah Cave, south‐western Australia: refining regional late Pleistocene extinctions. Journal of Quaternary Science 31(5): 538-550.
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.
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
Long, J. A., and B. S. Mackness. 1994. Studies of the late Cainozoic diprotodontid marsupials of Australia. 4. The Bacchus Marsh diprotodons ² geology, sedimentology and taphonomy. Records of the South Australian Museum 27: 95-110.
Lundelius, Ernest L. Jr. and Turnbull, W. D. (1989). The mammalian fauna of Madura Cave, Western Australia. Part VII: Macropodidae: Sthenurinae, Macropodinae, with a review of the marsupial portion of the fauna. Fieldiana, Geology, new series 17: 1-71.
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.
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.
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. Lilydale, Victoria: Pioneer Design Studio.
Piper, Katarzyna J. (2007). Early Pleistocene mammals from the Nelson Bay Local Fauna, Portland, Victoria, Australia. Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 27: 492-503.
Piper, Katarzyna J. (2016). The Macropodidae (Marsupialia) of the early Pleistocene Nelson Bay Local Fauna, Victoria, Australia. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74: 233-253.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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]
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.