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PROTEMNODON PARMA (WATERHOUSE) AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF RELATED WALLABIES ( PROTEMNODON, THYLOQALE , AND SETONIX )
Author(s) -
RIDE W. D. L.
Publication year - 1957
Publication title -
proceedings of the zoological society of london
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0370-2774
DOI - 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1957.tb00327.x
Subject(s) - polyphyly , zoology , biology , genus , skull , systematics , collation , evolutionary biology , taxonomy (biology) , anatomy , phylogenetics , philosophy , genetics , clade , linguistics , gene
SUMMARY1 The rare and possibly extinct wallaby, Protemnodon parma (Waterhouse), is redescribed and a list is given of all known material; most of which has been examined by the author. 2 Gould's mention of Illawarra, New South Wales, as being the area in which he had observed P. parma , is taken to be a restriction of the type locality. 3 Comparisons are made between P. parma and the species P. dorsalis, P. eugenii and P. billardieri and it is concluded that P. parma and P. dorsalis are closely related. Certain apparent structural differences in the teeth are shown to be correlated with difference in skull size. 4 It is concluded that there are three genera of wallabies: Protemnodon, Thylogale and Setonix and that these genera must be defined on characters other than size of the contained individuals because previous authors, using this criterion, have confused the natural relationships of the forms. 5 Thylogale is defined in the terms of Gray's original definition; P. parma P. eugenii and P. billardieri are excluded from this genus. 6 It is suggested that Protemnodon may be polyphyletic in that the forms contained therein are merely at a common functional stage in evolution and are therefore not necessarily related. 7 The monotypic genus Setonix is considered, and the possibility that it should be included in Potoroinae is discussed. It is concluded that there is insufficient evidence for such a step to be taken but that the position requires further examination.