Simosthenurus pales (De Vis, 1895)

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Sthenurus pales (De Vis, 1895)

"This very large sthenurine has upper molars that bear a postprotocrista markedly separated into two components. Its p3 has a very prominent anteriormost cuspule of the main crest, and a long buccal crest that terminates adjacent to a short ridgelet directed posteriorly from the anteriormost cuspule."

(Matthews et al., 2025)

Conservation Status

Extinct

Last record: Late Pleistocene

Distribution

Australia

Anatomy & Morphology

It weighed an estimated 150kg (Johnson & Prideaux, 2004:557; Johnson, 2006:19).

Biology & Ecology

It was a browser (Johnson, 2006:19).

Hypodigm

F31041 (Dawson, 1985:66)

FU2854 (right dP3) (Matthews et al., 2025)

FU2865 (Matthews et al., 2025: "l maxilla with I1, DP3, M1" ; "left dentary fragment dp3, m1 (sans detached incisor)")

FU2841 (LMX (anterior loph)) (Matthews et al., 2025)

FU2854 (RdP3) (Matthews et al., 2025)

FU2939 (lp3 and other fragments) (Matthews et al., 2025)

Media

References

Original scientific description:

De Vis, Charles W. (1895). A review of the fossil jaws of the Macropodidae in the Queensland Museum. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. (2) 10 : 75-133, pIs 14-18.

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.

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.

Johnson, Chris N. (2006). Australia's Mammal Extinctions: A 50 000 Year History. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Cambridge University Press. x + 278 pp. [p. 19]

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

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.

Matthews, Roger L., Fusco, Diana A., Gully, Grant A., Arnold, Lee, J., Demuro, Martina, Spooner, Nigel A., Wells, Roderick T. and Prideaux, Gavin J. (2025). Kiana Cliff: a new fossil vertebrate site of probable last interglacial age from Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. https://doi.org/10.1080/03721426.2025.2452015

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. 2004. Systematics and evolution of the sthenurine kangaroos. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 146:i±xviii, 1-623.

Prideaux, G. J., R. G. Roberts, D. Megirian, K. E. Westaway, J. C. Hellstrom, and J. M. Olley. (2007). Mammalian responses to Pleistocene climate change in southeastern Australia. Geology 35: 33-36.

Prideaux, Gavin J. et al. (2010). Timing and dynamics of Late Pleistocene mammal extinctions in southwestern Australia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107(51): 22157-22162.

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.

Reed, Elizabeth H. and Bourne, Steven J. (2009). Pleistocene Fossil Vertebrate Sites of the South East Region of South Australia II. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 133(1): 30-40.

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

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]

Williams, Dominic L. G. (1980). Catalogue of Pleistocene vertebrate fossils and sites in South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 104(5): 101-115.

ftp://rock.geosociety.org/pub/reposit/2007/2007016.pdf

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