Neohelos
| Neohelos | |
|---|---|
| |
| Skull of Neohelos stirtoni at the Melbourne Museum | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
| Order: | Diprotodontia |
| Family: | †Diprotodontidae |
| Subfamily: | † Zygomaturinae
|
| Genus: | †Neohelos Stirton, 1967 |
| Type species | |
| Neohelos tirarensis Stirton, 1967
| |
| Species | |
|
N. tirarensis Stirton, 1967 | |
Neohelos is an
Riversleigh of Australia
.
Description
Neohelos is known from many specimens, assigned to all the species. N. tirarensis includes a partial
teeth and a maxilla fragment; and N. stirtoni is known from a mostly complete skull, a maxilla and a dentary.[2]
Distinguishing characteristics
A revision of Neohelos found a set of features in all the species that are absent in all other
diprotodontoids. They are listed below:[2]
- four−cusped P3 with a tall, subcentral parametacone, a distinct anterior parastyle, a moderately developed protocone and a small to moderate (sometimes absent) hypocone;
- tendency to develop a mesostyle on P3;
- M1 with well−developed stylar cusp A, stylar cusp E and postmetacrista;
- M1 with a square occlusal outline (except N. solus);
- large interproximal contact between P3 and M1;
- broad, lanceolate i1 with a ventrobuccal groove and longitudinal lingual crest;
- and moderate epitympanic fenestra in the postglenoid cavity.
Classification
Neohelos includes many species. Among them, N. davidridei is the most
Zygomaturinae along with Zygomaturus and other genera.[2]
Paleoecology
Neohelos lived in the
Riversleigh in Queensland, and the Wipajiri Formation of South Australia.[2]
References
- ^ Murray, P.; Megirian, D.; Rich, T.; Plane, M.; Vickers-Rich, Patricia (December 2000). "Neohelos stirtoni, a new species of Zygomaturinae (Diprotodonta: Marsupialia) from the mid-Tertiary of the Northern Territory, Australia". Records of the Queen Victoria Museum Launceston. 105: 1–47.
- ^ .
- The Book of Life: An Illustrated History of the Evolution of Life on Earth by Jean-Paul Tibbles, Peter Andrews, John Barber, and Michael Benton
- Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution by John A. Long, Michael Archer, Timothy Flannery, and Suzanne Hand
- Number 6 Murray P et al., 2000 Morphology, systematics and evolution of the marsupial genus Neohelos Stirton (Diprotdontidae, Zygomaturinae)