The marsupial family Pseudocheiridae is currently known from seventeen species of six genera in Australia and New Guinea. These small to medium-sized arboreal animals are nocturnal and folivorous. Extinct pseudocheirids are recognised from several mid to late Cenozoic fossil localities across Australia and New Guinea. The single largest collection of pseudocheirid fossils has been recovered from the Oligo-Miocene freshwater carbonates of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northwest Queensland. This collection, which includes the first pseudocheirid cranial fossils, forms the basis of this investigation. Three new extinct pseudocheirid genera together containing four species are identified and described. Six new species of Paljara, Marlu and Pildra are also described from Riversleigh. Two of the new Marlu species are reported from South Australia??s Leaf Locality. From Riversleigh, Marlu kutjamarpensis is identified and additional material of Paljara tirarensae and P. nancyhawardae documented. New species attributed to Marlu and Pildra necessitate revision of those genera. Cranial material is identified for three of the new species. The rostrum of archaic pseudocheirids is shorter than in extant forms but cranial morphology is similar overall. Phylogenetic relationships of all extinct pseudocheirids are analysed. They include all new and previously described species, most of which have never been examined in a parsimony-based analysis. Two hypotheses of pseudocheirid evolution are presented: a paired lineage hypothesis and a single lineage hypothesis. Both hypotheses demonstrate that species of Paljara are not the most plesiomorphic pseudocheirids, Marlu praecursor does not cluster with other species of Marlu, the new genus Gawinga is most closely related to Paljara and there are no representatives of the extant genus Pseudochirops in any pre-Pliocene locality. All extant pseudocheirids cluster to form a crown clade sister to a stem lineage of Pseudokoala and Marlu species. Pseudocheirids are found in all Oligo-Miocene faunal zones of Riversleigh. Species of Paljara and Marlu are most frequently recovered from Faunal Zone B and C deposits respectively. Four pseudocheirid species biostratigraphically correlate the Kutjamarpu local fauna of the Leaf Locality with Faunal Zones B and C of Riversleigh, suggesting an early to middle Miocene age for both deposits. Modern pseudocheirids first evolved no later than the late Miocene from a descendant of the Marlu + Pseudokoala lineage when all other Oligo-Miocene pseudocheirids became extinct. At least three pseudocheirid lineages dispersed to New Guinea approximately five million years ago, but ecological barriers probably prevented subsequent migrations between the two landmasses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/258465 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Roberts, Karen K, Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded By:University of New South Wales. Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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