Joculusium

Joculusium muizoni is a fossil species discovered at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area. Little is known about the animal.

Joculusium
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Dasyuromorphia
Genus: †Joculusium
Species:
†J. muizoni
Binomial name
†Joculusium muizoni
Wroe, 2011[1]

Taxonomy

The species describes a fossilised specimen of an unknown family, but allied to the order Dasyuromorphia with reasonable confidence by the author Stephen Wroe.[1][2] The holotype and only sole known specimen is a lower jaw bone. The epithet of the species muizoni honours the palaeontologist Christian de Muizon and its new genus Joculusium was named in reference to the type locality.[2]

Description

Joculusium muizoni is a fossil species of dasyuromorph, an order of marsupials represented in the modern Australian fauna by the quolls (Dasyuridae), Tasmanian devil and recently extinct thylacine (Thylacinidae).[2] When discovered, the specimen exhibited the least derived characteristics of the known species of the order that was found in dasyurid and thylacinid families.[1] The only specimen is a jaw bone of a carnivore that probably ate smaller vertebrate species or insects.[2]

Distribution

The type locality is middle Miocene (Faunal Zone C, circa 14 myr) at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, which at that time was a wetter environment dominated by rainforest.[2]

References
  1. Wroe, S. (2011). "A new genus and species of dasyuromorphian from the Miocene of Riversleigh, Northern Australia" (PDF). Memoirs of the Australian Association of Palaeontologists. 25: 53–59.
  2. "Joculusium muizoni ". Riversleigh News and Faunal Encyclopedia. wakaleo.net. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
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