Zygomaturus
| Zygomaturus | ||||||||||||
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Zygomaturus skeleton |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Late Miocene to late Pleistocene | ||||||||||||
| approx. 10 million years to approx. 50,000 years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Zygomaturus | ||||||||||||
| Macleay , 1858 | ||||||||||||
Zygomaturus is a genus of extinct marsupials from Australia. The animals reached the size of a cattle, but they were significantly larger. With the species Zygomaturus trilobius and Zygomaturus nimborensia , the genus occurred in Australia and New Guinea until the Late Pleistocene. Like the well-known genus Diprotodon , Zygomaturus belonged tothe Diprotodontidae family. Because of the ossification on the snout and forehead, which can be classified as horns, the animals are sometimes also referred to as pouch rhinos.
Features and evolution
Early finds of the genus were often described under the name Nototherium mitchelli . The pronounced cheekbones ( zygomaticum ), from which the scientific name is derived, are characteristic. In contrast to Diprotodon , whose remains have also been found in the interior of the Australian continent, Zygomaturus seems to have been restricted to the moister, wooded coastal areas. Zygomaturus may have developed from the Miocene genus Kolopsis and inhabited Australia from the late Miocene to the late Pleistocene.
species
Zygomaturus trilobius occurred in Australia until the late Pleistocene. Zygomaturus nimborensia is also represented from New Guinea until the late Pleistocene. Another Pleistocene species was Zygomaturus macleayi , while Zygomaturus keanei lived in the Pliocene. Zygomaturus gilli from the late Miocene is one of the earliest species .