Palorchestes
| Palorchestes | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Palorchestes azael (reconstruction) |
||||||||||||
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Late Miocene to late Pleistocene | ||||||||||||
| approx. 10 million years to approx. 50,000 years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Palorchestes | ||||||||||||
| Owen , 1873 | ||||||||||||
Palorchestes is a genus of extinct marsupials from Australia. The last surviving species, Palorchestes azael , reached the size of a cattle and survived until the late Pleistocene. Due to a suspected trunk, the animals are sometimes referred to as bag tapirs.
features
The species of Palorchestes reached a body weight of 370 to 1410 kg, the particularly large Palorchestes azael possibly also weighed up to 2060 kg. The animals had elongated, claw-reinforced front legs, while the rear legs were relatively poorly developed but also had claws. A well-preserved skull of the species Palorchestes painei (tapir-like marsupial) indicates that at least this species had a trunk. Since the Pleistocene species Palorchestes azael was very similar in other morphological aspects, but there is no such well-preserved skull of this one, it is assumed that this species could also have had a trunk. The lower jaw structure of all Palorchestes species also indicates that the animals had a long tongue, similar to today's giraffes. The teeth were high-crowned and complex, which indicates a fiber-rich diet such as bark. The strong front legs could have been used to tear bark from trees or dig up roots. Reconstructions of the musculoskeletal system give rise to the assumption that the animals were able to stand up on their hind legs. Possibly a strong tail supported the posture. The front feet were then free to pluck branches and leaves.
species
- Palorchestes azael (Pleistocene)
- Palorchestes parvus (Early Pliocene )
- Palorchestes selestiae (Early Pliocene)
- Palorchestes painei (Late Miocene )
- Palorchestes anulus (Middle Miocene)
A likely forerunner of Palorchestes was the genus Propalorchestes from the late Oligocene to the Middle Miocene , which also belonged to the family of the Palorchestidae.
Web links
- Australia's Vanished Beasts - Palorchestid - Presentation and Information
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Long, J., Archer, M., Flannery, T., and Hand, SJ (2002): Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution. Kensington: University of New South Wales. (pg 100)
- ↑ Hazel L. Richards, Rod T. Wells, Alistair R. Evans, Erich MG Fitzgerald and Justin W. Adams: The extraordinary osteology and functional morphology of the limbs in Palorchestidae, a family of strange extinct marsupial giants. PLoS ONE 14 (9), 2019, p. E0221824, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0221824