Thylacinus (Marsupialia: Thylacinidae) from the Mio-Pliocene boundary and the diversity of Late Neogene thylacinids in Australia

Thylacinus yorkellus is described as a new, moderately small-bodied species of thylacinid from the latest Miocene or, more likely, earliest Pliocene of South Australia. The new species can be diagnosed by the autapomorphic presence a strongly developed precingulid that terminates in a cuspidule on t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2015-05, Vol.3, p.e931-e931
Main Author: Yates, Adam M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Art galleries & museums
Australia
Biodiversity
Dasyuromorphia
Diversity
Endangered & extinct species
Evolutionary Studies
Hypotheses
Marsupialia
Molars
Neogene
New species
Paleontology
Phylogenetics
Physical characteristics
Sibling species
Stone
Taxonomy
Teeth
Thylacinidae
Thylacinus
Thylacinus cynocephalus
Zoology
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Description
Summary:Thylacinus yorkellus is described as a new, moderately small-bodied species of thylacinid from the latest Miocene or, more likely, earliest Pliocene of South Australia. The new species can be diagnosed by the autapomorphic presence a strongly developed precingulid that terminates in a cuspidule on the anterobuccal face of the paraconid of the lower molars and a tiny basal anterior cuspidule on P 2, P 3 and the lower molars. It is found by cladistic analysis to be the sister species of the recently extinct Th. cynocephalus and distinct from the approximately coeval Th. megiriani from the Northern Territory. New dentary material is described and referred to Th. megiriani. These add character data and allow this species to be re-diagnosed based on autapomorphic character traits. Each of the three known late Miocene to early Pliocene Thylacinus species (Th. potens, Th. megiriani and Th. yorkellus) suggest that, instead of declining, there was a modest radiation of Thylacinus in the late Miocene.
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.931