Artist’s impression of Nombe Rockshelter megafauna, exhibiting the Nombe kangaroo on the fitting. Credit: Artwork by Peter Schouten
Australian paleontologists from Flinders University have described a brand new genus of large fossil kangaroo from the mountains of central Papua New Guinea.
The new description of the fossil kangaroo has discovered that fairly than being carefully associated to Australian kangaroos, it almost certainly belongs to a novel genus of extra primitive kangaroo discovered solely in Papua New Guinea.
The kangaroo, first described in 1983 by Professor Tim Flannery, is thought from fossils round 20,000-50,000 years previous. They come from the Nombe Rockshelter, an archaeological and paleontological website in Chimbu Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Nombe is already identified for a number of extinct species of kangaroo and large four-legged marsupials known as diprotodontids.
Flinders University researchers have renamed the animal Nombe nombe, after the situation of its discovery—and plan to return to PNG for additional excavations and analysis subsequent 12 months.
The squat, muscular Nombe lived in a various montane rainforest with thick undergrowth and a closed cover. Here, it developed to eat the powerful leaves from bushes and shrubs, with a thick jaw bone and powerful chewing muscular tissues.
Much of the animal lifetime of New Guinea is little-known outdoors the island, regardless of its shade and distinctiveness. This discovery breathes some new life into the exploration of New Guinea’s faunal historical past.
Flinders University palaeontology researcher Isaac Kerr with an Australian kangaroo jaw bone, and an Australian megafauna fossil jaw used within the newest Royal Society research. Credit: Flinders University
“The New Guinean fauna is fascinating, however only a few Australians have a lot of an thought of what is really there,” says Flinders paleontology Ph.D. candidate Isaac Kerr.
“There are a number of species of enormous, long-nosed, worm-eating echidna which are nonetheless round immediately, many alternative wallaby and possum species that we do not get in Australia, and extra nonetheless within the fossil document.
“We consider these animals as being uniquely Australian, however they’ve this intriguing different life inside New Guinea.”
Using 3D imagery and different know-how, the researchers have studied stays from the PNG Museum and Art gallery. They now consider that the species might have developed from an historical type of kangaroo that dispersed into New Guinea within the late Miocene epoch, round 5-8 million years in the past.
During that point, the islands of New Guinea and mainland Australia have been related by a “land-bridge” resulting from decrease sea ranges, fairly than separated by the flooded Torres Strait as they’re immediately. This “bridge” allowed early Australian mammals, together with varied large extinct kinds, to maneuver into the rainforests of New Guinea.
When the Torres Strait flooded once more, nevertheless, these populations of animals grew to become disconnected from their Australian family, and so developed individually to swimsuit their tropical, mountainous PNG dwelling.
Nombe is now thought of the descendant of one in every of these historical lineages of kangaroos.
3D render of the PNG kangaroo fossilized jaw bone used within the new Flinders University research. Credit: I Kerr, Flinders University
Sporadic paleontological work was undertaken there by American and Australian researchers within the Nineteen Sixties, ’70s and ’80s, a lot of which resulted in fascinating discoveries of extinct megafauna. However, no paleontological digs have taken place there for the reason that early ’90s, a scenario the Flinders University researchers search to treatment.
Co-author on the brand new Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia article, Flinders University Professor Gavin Prideaux, says the analysis will increase due to a grant from the Australia Pacific Science Foundation.
“We’re very excited to undertake three paleontological digs at two totally different websites in jap and central PNG over the subsequent three years,” he says.
“We’ll be working with the curators of the Papua New Guinea Museum and Art Gallery and different contacts in PNG, with whom we hope to construct some native curiosity in New Guinean paleontology.”
Quokka-sized fossil species present kangaroos evolving to eat leaves, for the fourth time
More data:
A brand new genus of fossil kangaroo from late Pleistocene New Guinea, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia (2022). DOI: 10.1080/03721426.2022.2086518
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Researchers describe new kangaroo fossil from Papua New Guinea (2022, June 28)
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