New Early Miocene marsupial species discovered in Queensland's Riversleigh World Heritage Area
By
Timothy James Churchill (a1), Michael Archer (a1), Suzanne J. Hand (a1) and Robin M. D. Beck (a2)
A baker's-dozen of insight crammed into one ring.
Summary
Fossil discoveries from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northwestern Queensland, Australia, have uncovered three previously unknown species of small, insect-eating marsupials that lived about 18 million years ago. Named Phantasmodon travouilloni, Phantasmodon minuferox, and Keeunidae gen. and sp. indet., these animals ranged from shrew- to mouse-sized. Their teeth share distinctive features with older Australian species and with Djarthia murgonensis, the continent's oldest known marsupial, recovered from 55-million-year-old deposits in Murgon, southern Queensland. The study establishes a new metatherian order called Keeunamorphia.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledFossil discoveries from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northwestern Queensland, Australia, have uncovered three previously unknown species of small, insect-eating marsupials that lived about 18 million years ago.
Named Phantasmodon travouilloni, Phantasmodon minuferox, and Keeunidae gen. and sp. indet., these animals ranged from shrew- to mouse-sized.
Their teeth share distinctive features with older Australian species and with Djarthia murgonensis, the continent's oldest known marsupial, recovered from 55-million-year-old deposits in Murgon, southern Queensland.
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