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Wakaleo
''Wakaleo'' (indigenous Australian ''waka'', "little", "small", and Latin ''leo'', "lion") was a genus of medium-sized thylacoleonids that lived in Australia in the Late Oligocene and Miocene Epochs. Although much smaller than its close relative, the marsupial lion (''Thylacoleo carnifex''), ''Wakaleo'' would have been a successful hunter. It had teeth specially designed for cutting and stabbing. The genus is from an extinct family of Vombatiformes, so it is distantly related to the herbivorous wombats. Taxonomy ''Wakaleo'' was erected in 1974 by W. A. Clemens and M. Plane. Five species are known: *''Wakaleo alcootaensis'' was found in the Miocene Waite Formation in the Northern Territory in 1974. It was slightly larger than the other two species. *''Wakaleo oldfieldi'' was found by a group of scientists working in the Miocene Wipijiri Formation in southern Australia in 1971. They found a nearly complete left dentary which included a few well-preserved teeth. *''Wakaleo pit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wakaleo
''Wakaleo'' (indigenous Australian ''waka'', "little", "small", and Latin ''leo'', "lion") was a genus of medium-sized thylacoleonids that lived in Australia in the Late Oligocene and Miocene Epochs. Although much smaller than its close relative, the marsupial lion (''Thylacoleo carnifex''), ''Wakaleo'' would have been a successful hunter. It had teeth specially designed for cutting and stabbing. The genus is from an extinct family of Vombatiformes, so it is distantly related to the herbivorous wombats. Taxonomy ''Wakaleo'' was erected in 1974 by W. A. Clemens and M. Plane. Five species are known: *''Wakaleo alcootaensis'' was found in the Miocene Waite Formation in the Northern Territory in 1974. It was slightly larger than the other two species. *''Wakaleo oldfieldi'' was found by a group of scientists working in the Miocene Wipijiri Formation in southern Australia in 1971. They found a nearly complete left dentary which included a few well-preserved teeth. *''Wakaleo pit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wakaleo Alcootaensis
''Wakaleo alcootaensis'' was a species of marsupial lion of the genus ''Wakaleo'', that lived during the late Miocene, about 10 million years ago. Taxonomy The first description was given in an examination of material discovered at Alcoota in the Northern Territory of Australia. The holotype was a single fossil maxilla fragment found in 1974 by the palaeontologist Michael Archer. Description The largest and most recent species of ''Wakaleo'', a genus of the Thylacoleonidae Thylacoleonidae is a family of extinct meat-eating marsupials from Australia, referred to as marsupial lions. The best known is ''Thylacoleo carnifex'', also called the marsupial lion. The clade ranged from the Late Oligocene to the Pleistoc ... family. The size and form is to comparable a small lioness. Fossil material of this species is fragmentary and rare, and it is only known amongst the Alcoota local fauna. Further evidence of the animals cranial and dental features were examined in 2014, le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thylacoleonidae
Thylacoleonidae is a family of extinct meat-eating marsupials from Australia, referred to as marsupial lions. The best known is ''Thylacoleo carnifex'', also called the marsupial lion. The clade ranged from the Late Oligocene to the Pleistocene, with some species the size of a possum and others as large as that of a leopard. As a whole, they were largely arboreal, in contrast to the mostly terrestrial dasyuromorphs (quolls only recently took the niches vacated by small thylacoleonids), monitor lizards and mekosuchines. Hypercarnivory was also found in another order of marsupials, the dasyuromorph family Thylacinidae that included the Tasmanian tiger ''Thylacinus cynocephalus'' that became extinct in the twentieth century. Description A diprotodontian family allied to the Vombatiformes, mammals that radiated and diversified in the Oligocene to Miocene. The thylacoleonid genera exhibit specialised dentition that allowed them to kill prey larger than themselves. The earliest d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wakaleo Pitikantensis
''Wakaleo pitikantensis'' is a species of carnivorous marsupial that was discovered at fossil sites in South Australia. Taxonomy The description by Rauscher was published in 1987, naming a new species and genus as ''Priscileo pitikantensis''. The designation as the type species of the genus '' Priscileo'' was later recognised as a species of a revised description of ''Wakaleo''. Fossil material examined by Rauscher was obtained at Lake Pitikanta, situated to the east of Lake Eyre. Description The smallest known species of ''Wakaleo'', it lived in Australia about 25 million years ago, from the late Oligocene to middle Miocene, and was approximately the size of a cat. They were mid-sized predators who probably hunted in trees or ambushed prey from a branch. Like the later discovery, '' Wakaleo schouteni'', the species possesses three premolars and four molars which distinguishes them from others of the genus. A little smaller than ''W. schouteni'', this species also differs in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wakaleo Vanderleuri
''Wakaleo vanderleuri'' is a species of marsupial lion of the genus ''Wakaleo'', that lived in Australia during the Miocene (about 16 to 10million years ago). Description Being a marsupial, it is not closely related to true cats. This animal is hypothesized to have been an omnivore, eating significant amounts of meat, perhaps more like a bear in diet and habit than like an actual lion. It lacked large canine-like fangs, producing some controversy regarding just how much it actually preyed on living animals. The meat-eating hypothesis is based largely upon the morphology of its molar teeth. The species is believed to have been able to hunt by leaping from trees onto its prey. The type species fossils were originally found in the Bullock Creek (Northern Territory) The Bullock Creek Fossil site is one of three known vertebrate fossil sites in the Northern Territory of Australia, along with the Alcoota Fossil Beds and the Kangaroo Well site on Deep Well Station. It is locate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wakaleo Schouteni
''Wakaleo schouteni'' is a species of carnivorous marsupial that was discovered at fossil sites in South Australia. Taxonomy The description of the species was published in 2017, the collaborating authors Anna Gillespie, Mike Archer and Suzanne Hand working on the PANGEA research project based at the University of New South Wales. The holotype is a largely complete skull retaining some teeth and alveoli, with other materials such as the lower jaw and a humerus associated with the new species as paratypes. The discovery of more complete evidence of Oligocene species of the marsupial lion lineages prompted the authors to emend the circumscription of ''Wakaleo'' to include the type species of another genus, '' Priscileo pitikantensis'', as a sister species to this taxon and contradicting a 2016 study that supported separation of ''P. pitikantensis'' from the wakaleo clade. Another early thylacoleonid species, '' "Priscileo" roskellyae'', was determined to have diverged from this gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wakaleo Oldfieldi
''Wakaleo oldfieldi'' is an extinct species of marsupial lions of the genus ''Wakaleo'', found in Miocene deposits of South Australia. It had three unfused molar teeth instead of two fused molars as is the case with the Pleistocene ''Thylacoleo carnifex''. As with ''Thylacoleo carnifex'', this species is presumed to have used its maxillary (upper) teeth to hold its food and sharpen the mandibular teeth, the latter were also used in slicing and stabbing during eating. The premolars also had a crescent-shaped circumference for slicing. Taxonomy A description of the species was published in 1974. It is a species of ''Wakaleo ''Wakaleo'' (indigenous Australian ''waka'', "little", "small", and Latin ''leo'', "lion") was a genus of medium-sized thylacoleonids that lived in Australia in the Late Oligocene and Miocene Epochs. Although much smaller than its close relativ ...'', marsupial carnivores also found at other fossil sites in Australia. References External linksMik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thylacoleo Carnifex
''Thylacoleo'' ("pouch lion") is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the late Pleistocene (2 million to 46 thousand years ago). Some of these marsupial lions were the largest mammalian predators in Australia of their time, with ''Thylacoleo carnifex'' approaching the weight of a lioness. The estimated average weight for the species ranges from . Taxonomy The genus was first published in 1859, erected to describe the type species ''Thylacoleo carnifex''. The new taxon was established in examination of fossil specimens provided to Richard Owen. The familial alliance takes its name from this description, the so-called marsupial lions of Thylacoleonidae. The colloquial name "marsupial lion" alludes to the superficial resemblance to the placental lion and its ecological niche as a large predator. ''Thylacoleo'' is not closely related to the modern lion (''Panthera leo''). Genus: ''Thylacoleo'' (''Thylacopardus'') – Australia' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vombatiformes
The Vombatiformes are one of the three suborders of the large marsupial order Diprotodontia. Seven of the nine known families within this suborder are extinct; only the families Phascolarctidae, with the koala, and Vombatidae, with three extant species of wombat, survive. Among the extinct families are the Diprotodontidae, which includes the rhinoceros sized ''Diprotodon'', believed to be the largest marsupials ever, as well as the "marsupial lions" Thylacoleonidae and "marsupial tapirs" Palorchestidae. "Vombatiformes" is neo-Latin for "wombat-shaped things", and took its name from its type family. The suborder Vombatiformes, with its closely related members and their compact body form, contrasts with the other two diprotodont suborders, the Macropodiformes: kangaroos, wallabies, and the quokka; and the Phalangeriformes: possums, including the gliders such as the wrist-winged gliders. The koala and wombats are believed by many biologists to share a common ancestor and to have di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossil Taxa Described In 1974
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Paleontology is the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are usually considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before print. The observation in the 19th century that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led to the recognition of a geological timescale and the relative ages of different fossils. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed scientists to quantitatively measure the abso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prehistoric Marsupial Genera
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared 5000 years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing spreading to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at very different times in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. In the early Bronze Age, Sumer in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilisation, and ancient Egypt were the first civilizations to develop their own scripts and to keep historical records, with their neighbors following. Most other civilizations reached the end of prehistory during the following Iron Age. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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