Categories
  Encyclosphere.org ENCYCLOREADER
  supported by EncyclosphereKSF

Archerus

From HandWiki - Reading time: 2 min


Short description: Extinct genus of marsupials

Archerus
Temporal range: Early to Middle Miocene
Scientific classification e
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Animalia
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Chordata
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Mammalia
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Marsupialia
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Diprotodontia
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Phalangeridae
Script error: No such module "Taxobox ranks".: Archerus
Myers & Crosby, 2023
Type species
Archerus johntoniae
Myers & Crosby, 2023
Species
  • A. johntoniae

Archerus is a genus of extinct marsupials from Miocene Australia. It is known from jawbones and partial skulls from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland, dated to between 18 to 12 million years ago. These are sufficient to identify it as a phalangerid, perhaps more closely related to the brushtail possums than to the cuscuses, but with many distinctive skeletal features that make the latter relationship uncertain; it may have lived before the two branches of the living family diverged from one another. It is estimated to have weighed around 1.3 kg (2.9 lb), similar to the living scaly-tailed possum, and the shape of its teeth suggest that it had a similarly omnivorous diet.[1]

References

  1. Myers, T.; Crosby, K. (March 2023). "A new Early–Middle Miocene phalangerid (Marsupialia: Phalangeridae) from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park, northwestern Queensland". Alcheringa 47 (4): 522-533. doi:10.1080/03115518.2023.2185677. 

Wikidata ☰ Q123991837 entry




Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 | Source: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Biology:Archerus
28 views |
↧ Download this article as ZWI file
Encyclosphere.org EncycloReader is supported by the EncyclosphereKSF