Palorchestes

Abstract: The Nelson Bay Local Fauna, recovered from a paleosol horizon exposed in the sea cliffs at Nelson Bay, Portland, Victoria, Australia, comprises over 30 different mammalian species making it one of the most diverse early Pleistocene faunas in Australia. Its age is well constrained to 1.77–0.78 Ma by radiometric, biostratigraphic and paleomagnetic dating methods. The composition of the fauna, which includes predominantly browsing-grade taxa and a number of arboreal species, suggests the paleoenvironment was a mosaic of open forest and woodland. This habitat acted as a refuge for forest-adapted taxa previously known only from the early Pliocene, such as the ektopodontid, Darcius duggani, the giant ring-tailed possum, Pseudokoala, a small palorchestid, Palorchestes pickeringi, and a new species of Protemnodon. The Nelson Bay Local Fauna was compared at the generic level with six other faunas ranging in age from early Pliocene to Recent using Simpson's coefficient of faunal resemblance. This analysis ...

Abstract: A new small species of palorchestid marsupial, Palorchestes pickeringi, is described from the early Pleistocene Nelson Bay Local Fauna, and from the early Pliocene Hamilton Local Fauna, Victoria. The structure of the P3, and lower molar protolophid and links are particularly distinctive in this species. Palorchestes pickeringi is intermediate in size and morphology between P. painei and P. parvus. This is the third species of marsupial shared between the Hamilton and Nelson Bay Local Faunas and is further evidence for the persistence of wetter, more forested environments along the southwest coast of Victoria throughout the Pliocene and into the Pleistocene.

Abstract: A fossil mandible and incisor of the diprotodontid marsupial Palorchestes azeal Owen is reported from a new locality at Pulbeena, near Smithon, in northwestern Tasmania. The fossils occurred with a piece of wood which has a 14C age of 54,200-4,500 +11,000 B.P. Both fossils and wood were deposited contemporaneously in shallow-lake shell marls and swamp peat deposits of late Quaternary age. Pollen analysis indicates that this P. azael inhabited a Eucalyptus woodland.