Occurrence of Euowenia grata (De Vis, 1887) (Diprotodontidae,Marsupialia) from the Pliocene Spring Park Local Fauna,northeastern Queensland

Mackness, B.S., Black, K.H. & Price, G.J., 1.10.2014. Occurrence of Euowenia grata (De Vis, 1887 De Vis, C.W. [In Anon.] 1887. Untitled. The Brisbane Courier 9224 (44) (8 August), 6. [Google Scholar]) (Diprotodontidae, Marsupialia) from the Pliocene Spring Park Local Fauna, northeastern Queensland. Alcheringa 39, 000?000. ISSN 0311-5518

Ten specimens including several dentaries and maxillae, recovered from the Pliocene Spring Park Local Fauna, northern Australia, are referred to the diprotodontine Euowenia grata (De Vis). The fossils exhibit minimal dental wear and reveal new characters that are unrecognizable in the holotype. The remains represent at least three animals, effectively doubling the previous number of individuals known for this rare megaherbivore. The new records also provide a significant northern geographic range extension for the species and allow an assessment of intraspecific variation, sexual dimorphism and phylogenetic relationships for the species. Euowenia grata is most similar in morphology to the monotypic Pliocene diprotodontid Meniscolophus mawsoni.

Brian S. Mackness [deceased] and Karen H. Black [k.black@unsw.edu.au], School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW, 2052, Australia; Gilbert J. Price [g.price1@uq.edu.au], Department of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.     

Maradidae: a new family of vombatomorphian marsupial from the late Oligocene of Riversleigh,northwestern Queensland

Black, K., March 2007. Maradidae: a new family of vombatomorphian marsupial from the late Oligocene of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland. Alcheringa 31, 17-32. ISSN 0311-5518.

Marada arcanum gen. et sp. nov. is described from the late Oligocene Hiatus Site, Riversleigh World Heritage Property, northwestern Queensland. Although known from only a single dentary, it is assigned to a new family Maradidae, based on a unique combination of both plesiomorphic and apomorphic features. Of the known vombatomorphians, Marada is most similar to primitive wynyardiids and diprotodontoids (palorchestids and diprotodontids). Further clarification of the phylogenetic position of Maradidae within Vombatomorphia requires discovery of upper dentitions and crania.

Karen Black [k.black@unsw.edu.au], Vertebrate Palaeontology Laboratory, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia; received 17.1.2005, revised 1.6.2005.     

New record of Warendja wakefieldi (Vombatidae; Marsupialia) from Wombeyan Caves,New South Wales

Transverse sections of Chirodipterus australis and Griphognathus whitei are used to demonstrate the histological structures of the rostral and symphysial tubuli in Devonian lungfish. The walls of the tubuli are composed of bony tissue indistinguishable from the cancellar bone found in dermal bone. It has many spaces and perforations, and is contiguous in places with the cancellar bone of the external dermal bone. The walls of lateral-line canals have the same histological structure as the walls of the tubuli; they also intercommunicate with them. The tubuli and the lateral-line canals open to the surface through large perforations on the external surface. In Griphognathus the walls of the tubes under the external dermal bone have two layers: the outer one is dense bone, but the inner one has the appearance of calcified fibrous connective tissue of the kind associated with the tissue surrounding the lateral-line canals in living lungfish. The tubuli are closely related to the pore-canal system via canals that penetrate the dermal bone; this same relationship has been observed in Dipnorhynchus and Speonesydrion. The intimate connection between the tubuli and the lateral-line system suggests that they were formed by the sinking of neuromasts into and under the external dermal bone, with their walls surrounded by cancellar bone.