Pleistocene grey kangaroos from the fossil chamber of Victoria Fossil Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia
Date
2006
Authors
Easton, L.
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Journal article
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Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 2006; 130(1):17-28
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L. C. Easton
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Abstract
Craniodental characteristics of Pleistocene grey kangaroos from the Fossil Chamber deposit in the Victoria Fossil Cave (VFC-FC), Naracoorte are herein described and compared with South Australian samples of the two extant species, Macropus giganteus Shaw and M. fuliginosus (Desmarest), as well as Pleistocene Macropus material from Tight Entrance Cave in Western Australia. The VFC-FC fossil kangaroos are significantly larger than modern South Australian material in all craniodental attributes, but do not differ significantly in size from Tight Entrance Cave Macropus. Characteristics previously used to identify the extinct megafaunal species M. titan in VFC-FC are here deemed unreliable as diagnostic tools. It is suggested that M. titan is not represented in VFC-FC and that only one species is present. This species more closely resembles extant M. fuliginosus than M. giganteus.
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