Systematics: Mammalia Marsupialia Diprotodontia Hypsiprymnodontidae
Size: 60 cm
Type Horizon and Locality: Middle Miocene, Faunal Zone C, Riversleigh, Queensland, Australia
Type Specimen: QM F12423, partial left dentary with teeth
Nicknamed the "killer kangaroo", Ekaltadeta ("Powerful tooth") is a marsupial related to modern rat-kangaroos. It is believed from the dentition that it was either a meat eater or an omnivore.
March 29, 2020
References:
Archer, M., & Flannery, T. (1985). Revision of the extinct gigantic rat kangaroos (Potoroidae: Marsupialia), with description of a new Miocene genus and species and a new Pleistocene species of Propleopus. Journal of Paleontology, 1331-1349.
Wroe, S. (1996). An investigation of phylogeny in the giant extinct rat kangaroo Ekaltadeta (Propleopinae, Potoroidae, Marsupialia). Journal of Paleontology, 70(4), 681-690.
Wroe, S., Brammall, J., & Cooke, B. N. (1998). The skull of Ekaltadeta ima (Marsupialia, Hypsiprymnodontidae?): an analysis of some marsupial cranial features and a re-investigation of propleopine phylogeny, with notes on the inference of carnivory in mammals. Journal of Paleontology, 72(4), 738-751.
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