Tingamarra Fauna
The Tingamarra Fauna is associated with the early Eocene
mekosuchine crocodiles along with frogs, lungfish and teleost fish in Australia.[1] The Murgon fossil site is located near Kingaroy in south-east Queensland
(26° 14' S, 151° 57' E).
Geology
Material that represents the fossil component is the MP1 horizon in a sequence of lacustrine clays from Boat Mountain. The geological formation of the site is not known for certain, but may be associated with the Oakdale Sandstone formation. The area was a swamp or shallow lake at the time of deposition, though the habitat has not been determined. Potassium-argon dating of illites has given a date of about 54.6 million years, which is before Australia's separation from Antarctica and South America[2]
| Fish of Tingamarra | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Abundance | Notes | Images |
| Amphibians of Tingamarra | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Abundance | Notes | Images |
| Reptiles of Tingamarra | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Abundance | Notes | Images |
| Patagoniophis | P. australiensis (Scanlon, 2004) | Many disarticulated vertebrae and fragmented ribs
|
||
| Alamitophis[3] | A. tingamarra | Fragmented dentary and rib along with disarticulated vertebrae. | ||
| Kambara | K. implexidens and K. murgonensis | |||
| ?Madtsoia | M.sp | Rib head and proximal shaft | serpentes. Some other characteristics indicate a Patagoniophis affinity excluding the large size (3.9 by 2.6 mm), but is still smaller than Madtsoia, to which it is most similar.[4]
|
|
| Murgonemys | M. braithwaitei | Almost complete semi-articulated carapace with vertebrae[5] | ||
Mammals of Tingamarra
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Abundance | Notes | Images |
| Archaeonothos | A. henkgodthelpi | A carnivorous metatherian of uncertain affinities. | ||
| Australonycteris | A. clarkae | A single dentary bone, many disarticulated teeth, postcranial bones.
|
Postcranial material is known but not described. | |
| "Chulpasia" | A fossil traditionally referred to the paucituberculate Chulpasia, now thought to represent an unrelated marsupial.[6]
| |||
| Djarthia | D. murgonensis | Jaw fragments with teeth.[7] | ||
| Tingamarra | T. porterorum | Rare | Two teeth one being 3 mm, and an ankle and ear bone is all that is described of this species. | |
| Thylacotinga | ? | Isolated teeth. | ||
| Birds of Tingamarra | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Abundance | Notes | Images |
| QM specimens F20688 (carpometacarpus) and F24685 (tibiotarsus) from Murgon, Queensland, are fossil bone fragments clearly recognizable as passeriform; they represent two species of approximately some 10 and some 20 cm in overall length.[8] | ||||
| Presbyornithid material similar to Presbyornis.[9] | ||||
References
- ^ Scanlon, J. D. 2005. Australia's oldest known snakes: Patagoniophis, Alamitophis, and cf. Madtsoia (Squamata: Madtsoiidae) from the Eocene of Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum (Proceedings of the Conference of Australasian Vertebrate Evolution, Palaeontology and Systematics) v. 51, p. 215–223.
- doi:10.1038/356514a0
- ^ "Tingamarra Alamitophis".
- ^ Scanlon (2005)
- ^ "Murgonemys braithwaitei".
- ^ A Brief History of South American Metatherians: Evolutionary Contexts and Intercontinental Dispersals
- ^ "Murgon Fossil Site".
- doi:10.1071/MU97004
- ^ Vanesa L. De Pietri, R. Paul Scofield, Nikita Zelenkov, Walter E. Boles and Trevor H. Worthy (2016). "The unexpected survival of an ancient lineage of anseriform birds into the Neogene of Australia: the youngest record of Presbyornithidae". Royal Society Open Science. 3 (2): 150635. doi:10.1098/rsos.150635.
Further reading
- Scanlon, J. D. (2005). "Australia's oldest known snakes: Patagoniophis, Alamitophis, and cf. Madtsoia (Squamata: Madtsoiidae) from the Eocene of Queensland". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 51 (1): 215–235. ISSN 0079-8835.