Wakaleo
| Wakaleo | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Miocene | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the subfamily | ||||||||||||
| Wakaleoninae | ||||||||||||
| Murray , Wells & Plane , 1987 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Wakaleo | ||||||||||||
| Clemens & Plane, 1974 | ||||||||||||
Wakaleo is a genus of marsupial lions from the Miocene.
features
Wakaleo was between the very small Priscileo and the lion-sized Thylacoleo . The weight data vary between 15 and 35 kg for the finds of the Riversleigh fauna, but data up to 41.4 kg are also available. It reached the size of a dingo today . Its sturdy skull is longer and narrower than that of Thylacoleo , but shorter and wider than that of Priscileo . The very large lower incisors and the large anterior premolars are striking . The entire row of molars decreased in size towards the back. Wakaleo differs from Priscileo in the reduction of the first premolar and the last (fourth) molar .
Paleobiology
Wakaleo is the largest predator in the Riversleigh fauna. According to anatomical studies, however, it did not have as high a bite force as its relatives Priscileo and Thylacoleo ; it was calculated about 673 Newtons , which results in a bite force quotient, based on body size and muscle mass, of 139. This value is in the range of today's wolves . It is possible that Wakaleo lived as a scavenger on the edge of the forest.
Systematics
Wakaleo represents a genus within the now extinct Thylacoleonidae , the marsupial lions, whereby it is assigned to its own subfamily Wakaleoninae, which differs from the sister group of the Thylacoleoninae by the reduction of the first premolar . It was mainly common in the Miocene in Australia. There are three known species: Wakaleo vanderleueri Clemens & Plane , lived in the Middle Miocene in 1974 and belongs to various local fauna of Riversleigh, but also of the Bullock Creek local fauna in the Northern Territory . Wakaleo oldfieldi Clemens & Plane , 1974 lived in the early Miocene and is also represented in the local fauna of Riversleigh, but is also found in the Kutjamarpu local fauna in South Australia . It is sometimes used as a synonym for Wakaleo vanderleueri . Wakaleo alcootaensis Archer & Rich , 1982 lived in the late Miocene and is a member of the local Alcoota fauna in the Northern Territory. The genus was first described in 1974 by the American zoologist William A. Clemens and MD Plane . The word waka comes from an Aboriginal language and means "small", leo is the name for "lion". Thus Wakaleo is the "little lion".
literature
- Long, Archer, Flannery, Hand: Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea, one hundred million years of evolution , Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, London 2002, ISBN 0-8018-7223-5
Individual evidence
- ^ KJ Travouillon, S. Legendre, M. Archer and SJ Hand: Palaeoecological analyzes of Riversleigh's Oligo-Miocene sites: Implications for Oligo-Miocene climate change in Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 276, 2009, pp. 24-37
- ↑ a b Stephen Wroe, Colin McHenr and Jeffrey Thomason: Bite club: comparative bite force in big biting mammals and the prediction of predatory behavior in fossil taxa. In: Proceeding of the Royal Society B, 2005, pp. 1-7, doi: 10.1098 / rspb.2004.2986
- ↑ a b Anna Gillespie: Priscileo roskellyae sp. nov. (Thylacoleonidae, Marsupialia) from the Oligocene-Miocene of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland. In: Memoirs of The Queensland Museum , 41, 1997, pp. 321-327
- ^ A b Karen H. Black, Michael Archer, Suzanne J. Hand, and Henk Godthelp: The Rise of Australian Marsupials: A Synopsis of Biostratigraphic, Phylogenetic, Palaeoecologic and Palaeobiogeographic Understanding. In: JA Talent (Ed.): Earth and Life. International Year of Planet Earth 983, 2012, pp. 983-1078, doi: 10.1007 / 978-90-481-3428-1_35