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Protemnodon tumbuna Flannery, Mountain & Aplin, 1983

Ancestral wallaby

 

 

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

 

 

Conservation Status

Extinct

Last record:  25.1 ± 0.6 (U-series minimum age) (Prideaux et al., 2022); 25ka-14.5ka (Sutton et al., 2009)

 

Distribution

New Guinea

 

Anatomy & Morphology

It weighed an estimated 50kg (Johnson & Prideaux, 2004:557; Johnson, 2006:18).

 

Biology & Ecology

It was a browser (Johnson, 2006:18).

 

Hypodigm

 

 

Media

 

 

References

Original scientific description:

Flannery, Timothy F., Mountain, Mary-Jane and Aplin, Ken. (1983). Quaternary kangaroos (Macropodidae: Marsupialia) from Nombe rock shelter, Papua New Guinea, with comments on the nature of megafaunal extinction in the New Guinea highlands. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 107(2): 75-97.

 

Other references:

Flannery T.F. 1983 Quaternary kangaroos (Macropodidae: Marsupialia) from Nombe Rock Shelter, Papua New Guinea, with comments on the nature of megafaunal extinction in the New Guinea Highlands. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 107, 75-97.

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.

Mountain, Mary-Jane. (1991). Highland New Guinea Hunter-Gatherers: The Evidence of Nombe Rockshelter, Simbu With Emphasis on the Pleistocene. Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Australian National University.

Prideaux, Gavin J. et al. (2022). Re-evaluating the evidence for late-surviving megafauna at Nombe rockshelter in the New Guinea highlands. Archaeology in Oceania. doi:10.1002/arco.5274

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.

Sutton, Alice, Mountain, Mary-Jane, Aplin, Ken, Bulmer, Susan and Denham, Tim. (2009). Archaeozoological records for the highlands of New Guinea: a review of current evidence. Australian Archaeology 69: 41-58.

https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/19809/protemnodon-tumbuna

 

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