Quinkana
| Quinkana Temporal range: Late Oligocene–Late Pleistocene | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Life restoration of Quinkana fortirostrum | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Order: | Crocodilia |
| Family: | Crocodylidae |
| Subfamily: | †Mekosuchinae |
| Genus: | †Quinkana Molnar, 1981 |
| Species | |
| |
Quinkana is an extinct genus of mekosuchine crocodylians that lived in Australia from about 24 million to about 40,000 years ago. By the Pleistocene, Quinkana had become one of the top terrestrial predators of Australia, possessing long legs and ziphodont teeth (lateromedially compressed, recurved, and serrated). Quinkana comes from the "Quinkans", a legendary folk from Aboriginal myths.
Species
The species within Quinkana include: the type species Q. fortirostrum from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Queensland,[1] Q. babarra from the Early Pliocene of Queensland,[2] Q. timara from the Middle Miocene of the Northern Territory, and Q. meboldi from the Late Oligocene of Queensland.
Description
The older species (Q. meboldi and Q. timara) were small in size, about 3 m (10 ft), compared to the large Plio-Pleistocene species which evolved. Quinkana fortirostrum has been estimated to have reached 6 m (20 ft) in length,[3] making it at the time one of Australia's largest predators, second only to the giant monitor lizard, megalania.
Quinkana is a genus within the subfamily Mekosuchinae. Other genera included in this family are: Australosuchus, Baru, Kambara, Mekosuchus, Pallimnarchus, and Trilophosuchus.
References
- ↑ Sobbe, I. H.; Price, G. J.; Knezour, R. A. (2013) A ziphodont crocodile from the late Pleistocene King Creek catchment, Darling Downs, Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum - Nature, 56 2: 601-606.
- ↑ Willis, P.M.A.; Mackness, B. (1996). "Quinkana babarra, a new species of ziphodont mekosuchine crocodile from the early Pliocene Bluff Downs Local Fauna, Northern Australia, with a revision of the genus". Proceedings and Journal of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 116: 143–151. Retrieved 2014-08-04.
- ↑ Molnar, R. E. (2004). Dragons in the Dust: The Paleobiology of the Giant Monitor Lizard Megalania. Indiana University Press. pp. 174–175. ISBN 0-253-34374-7. OCLC 52775128.