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Description of the Pliocene marsupial Ambulator keanei gen. nov. (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) from inland Australia and its locomotory adaptations
Diprotodontids were the largest marsupials to exist and an integral part of Australian terrestrial ecosystems until the last members of the group became extinct approximately 40 000 years ago. Despite the frequency with which diprotodontid remains are encountered, key aspects of their morphology, sy...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10230189/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37266037 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230211 |
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author | van Zoelen, Jacob D. Camens, Aaron B. Worthy, Trevor H. Prideaux, Gavin J. |
author_facet | van Zoelen, Jacob D. Camens, Aaron B. Worthy, Trevor H. Prideaux, Gavin J. |
author_sort | van Zoelen, Jacob D. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Diprotodontids were the largest marsupials to exist and an integral part of Australian terrestrial ecosystems until the last members of the group became extinct approximately 40 000 years ago. Despite the frequency with which diprotodontid remains are encountered, key aspects of their morphology, systematics, ecology and evolutionary history remain poorly understood. Here we describe new skeletal remains of the Pliocene taxon Zygomaturus keanei from northern South Australia. This is only the third partial skeleton of a late Cenozoic diprotodontid described in the last century, and the first displaying soft tissue structures associated with footpad impressions. Whereas it is difficult to distinguish Z. keanei and the type species of the genus, Z. trilobus, on dental grounds, the marked cranial and postcranial differences suggest that Z. keanei warrants genus-level distinction. Accordingly, we place it in the monotypic Ambulator gen. nov. We, also recognize the late Miocene Z. gilli as a nomen dubium. Features of the forelimb, manus and pes reveal that Ambulator keanei was more graviportal with greater adaptation to quadrupedal walking than earlier diprotodontids. These adaptations may have been driven by a need to travel longer distances to obtain resources as open habitats expanded in the late Pliocene of inland Australia. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10230189 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | The Royal Society |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-102301892023-06-01 Description of the Pliocene marsupial Ambulator keanei gen. nov. (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) from inland Australia and its locomotory adaptations van Zoelen, Jacob D. Camens, Aaron B. Worthy, Trevor H. Prideaux, Gavin J. R Soc Open Sci Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Diprotodontids were the largest marsupials to exist and an integral part of Australian terrestrial ecosystems until the last members of the group became extinct approximately 40 000 years ago. Despite the frequency with which diprotodontid remains are encountered, key aspects of their morphology, systematics, ecology and evolutionary history remain poorly understood. Here we describe new skeletal remains of the Pliocene taxon Zygomaturus keanei from northern South Australia. This is only the third partial skeleton of a late Cenozoic diprotodontid described in the last century, and the first displaying soft tissue structures associated with footpad impressions. Whereas it is difficult to distinguish Z. keanei and the type species of the genus, Z. trilobus, on dental grounds, the marked cranial and postcranial differences suggest that Z. keanei warrants genus-level distinction. Accordingly, we place it in the monotypic Ambulator gen. nov. We, also recognize the late Miocene Z. gilli as a nomen dubium. Features of the forelimb, manus and pes reveal that Ambulator keanei was more graviportal with greater adaptation to quadrupedal walking than earlier diprotodontids. These adaptations may have been driven by a need to travel longer distances to obtain resources as open habitats expanded in the late Pliocene of inland Australia. The Royal Society 2023-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC10230189/ /pubmed/37266037 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230211 Text en © 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Organismal and Evolutionary Biology van Zoelen, Jacob D. Camens, Aaron B. Worthy, Trevor H. Prideaux, Gavin J. Description of the Pliocene marsupial Ambulator keanei gen. nov. (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) from inland Australia and its locomotory adaptations |
title | Description of the Pliocene marsupial Ambulator keanei gen. nov. (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) from inland Australia and its locomotory adaptations |
title_full | Description of the Pliocene marsupial Ambulator keanei gen. nov. (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) from inland Australia and its locomotory adaptations |
title_fullStr | Description of the Pliocene marsupial Ambulator keanei gen. nov. (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) from inland Australia and its locomotory adaptations |
title_full_unstemmed | Description of the Pliocene marsupial Ambulator keanei gen. nov. (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) from inland Australia and its locomotory adaptations |
title_short | Description of the Pliocene marsupial Ambulator keanei gen. nov. (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) from inland Australia and its locomotory adaptations |
title_sort | description of the pliocene marsupial ambulator keanei gen. nov. (marsupialia: diprotodontidae) from inland australia and its locomotory adaptations |
topic | Organismal and Evolutionary Biology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10230189/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37266037 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230211 |
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