Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:44:22.849Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Yarala burchfieldi, a plesiomorphic bandicoot (Marsupialia, Peramelemorphia) from Oligo-Miocene deposits of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Jeanette Muirhead  and
Susan L. Filan
Jeanette Muirhead
Affiliation:
School of Biological Science, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
Susan L. Filan
Affiliation:
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Yarala burchfieldi n. gen. and sp. is described from Oligo-Miocene deposits of Riversleigh Station, northwestern Queensland. Although the smallest and most plesiomorphic bandicoot known, it shares unique synapomorphies with other peramelemorphs, such as the posteriorly orientated preparacrista on M2, posterolingual location of the hypoconulids, and the buccal position of the centrocrista. However, Y. burchfieldi lacks synapomorphies that would unambiguously allow it to be placed in any of the modern families as currently understood. In its plesiomorphic features, Y. burchfieldi provides a structural link between peramelemorphs and dasyuromorphs and appears to be a descendant of an annectant group that separated long prior to the origin of “typical” bandicoots. This species is present in many sites within the Riversleigh area. It possibly filled an insectivorous-carnivorous niche presently occupied by small dasyurids that are relatively more abundant today than they were when the Riversleigh deposits accumulated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 127 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aplin, K., and Archer, M. 1987. Recent advances in marsupial systematics with a new syncretic classification, p. xv–lxxii. In Archer, M. (ed.), Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution. Surrey Beatty and Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Archer, M. 1978. The nature of the molar-premolar boundary in marsupials and a reinterpretation of the homology of marsupial cheekteeth. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 18:157–164.Google Scholar
Archer, M., Godthelp, H., Hand, S. J., and Megirian, D. 1989. Fossil mammals of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland: preliminary overview of biostratigraphy, correlation and environmental change. Australian Zoologist, 25:29–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, M., Hand, J. S., and Godthelp, H. 1991. Riversleigh. The Story of Animals in Ancient Rainforests of Inland Australia. Reed Books, Sydney, 264 p.Google Scholar
Archer, M., and Kirsch, J. A. W. 1977. The case for the Thylacomyidae and Myrmecobiidae, Gill, 1872, or why are marsupial families so extended? Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 102:18–25.Google Scholar
Baverstock, P. R., Flannery, T., Aplin, K., Birrell, J., and Kreig, M. 1990. Albumin immunologic relationships of the bandicoots (Perameloidea: Marsupialia)—a preliminary report, p. 13–18. In Seebeck, J. H., Brown, R. L., Wallis, R. L., and Kemper, C. M. (eds.), Bandicoots and Bilbies. Surrey Beatty and Sons, Sydney.Google Scholar
Bensley, B. A. 1903. On the evolution of the Australian Marsupialia with remarks on the relationships of marsupials in general. Transactions of the Linnean Society, London (Zoology), 9:83–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuvier, G. 1817. Le règne animal distribué d'apres son organisation, pour servir de base à l'histoire naturelle des animaux et d'introduction a l'anatomie comparee. Deterville, Paris, Volume 1, 540 p.Google Scholar
Faith, D. P. 1990. Chance marsupial relationships. Nature, 345:393–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groves, C. P., and Flannery, T. 1990. Revision of the families and genera of bandicoots, p. 1–11. In Seebeck, J. H., Brown, R. L., Wallis, R. L. and Kemper, C. M. (eds.), Bandicoots and Bilbies. Surrey Beatty and Sons, Sydney.Google Scholar
Illiger, C. 1811. Prodromus systematis mammalian et avium; additus terminus zoographicis utriusque classis. C. Salfeld, Berlin, 301 p.Google Scholar
Kirsch, J. A. W. 1968. Prodromus of the comparative serology of Marsupialia. Nature, 217:418–420.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirsch, J. A. W. 1977. The comparative serology of Marsupialia, and a classification of marsupials. Australian Journal of Zoology, Supplimentary Series, 52:1–152.Google Scholar
Kirsch, J. A. W., Dickerman, A. W., Reig, O. A., and Springer, M.S. 1991. DNA hybridisation evidence for the Australian affinity of the American marsupial Dromiciops australis . Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, U.S.A., 88:10465–10469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirsch, J. A. W., Springer, M. S., Krajewski, C., Archer, M., Aplin, K., and Dickerman, A.W. 1990. DNA/DNA hybridization studies of the carnivorous marsupials. I: The intergeneric relationships of bandicoots (Marsupialia: Perameloidea). Journal of Molecular Evolution, 30:434–448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lowenstein, J. M., Sarich, V. M., and Richardson, B. J. 1981. Albumen systematics of the extinct mammoth and Tasmanian wolf. Nature, 291:409–411.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maxon, L. R., Sarich, V. M., and Wilson, A. C. 1975. Continental drift and the use of albumin as an evolutionary clock. Nature, 255:397–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarich, V., Lowenstein, J. M., and Richardson, B. J. 1982. Phylogenetic relationships of Thylacinus cynocephalus, Marsupialia as reflected in comparative serology, p. 707–709. In Archer, M. (ed.), Carnivorous Marsupials. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Stirton, R. A. 1955. Late Tertiary marsupials from South Australia. Records of the South Australian Museum, 11:247–268.Google Scholar
Szalay, F. 1992. A new appraisal of marsupial phylogeny and classification, p. 621–640. In Archer, M. (ed.), Carnivorous Marsupials. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Thomas, R. H., Schaffner, W., Wilson, A.C., and Pääbo, S. 1989. DNA phylogeny of the extinct marsupial wolf. Nature, 340:465–467.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed