{"title":"The sea cucumbers of Camden Sound in northwest Australia, including four new species (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea)","authors":"P. O’Loughlin, C. Harding, G. Paulay","doi":"10.24199/J.MMV.2016.75.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24199/J.MMV.2016.75.02","url":null,"abstract":"O’Loughlin P.M., Harding, C. & Paulay, G. 2016. The sea cucumbers of Camden Sound in northwest Australia, including four new species (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea). Memoirs of Museum Victoria 75: 7–52. All sea cucumbers collected from Camden Sound by the Kimberley Marine Research Program in 2015 are reported, with live colour illustrations of the species. Four new species are described, with O’Loughlin as author: Holothuria (Metriatyla) keesingi; Neothyonidium(?) insolitum; Plesiocolochirus minaeus; Protankyra torquea. Colochirus quadrangularis Troschel, the type species of Colochirus Troschel, is reviewed and a sensu stricto diagnosis is provided for Colochirus. Plesiocolochirus spinosus (Quoy & Gaimard), the type species of Plesiocolochirus Cherbonnier, is reviewed and a sensu stricto diagnosis is provided for Plesiocolochirus. Colochirus robustus Östergren is confirmed for NW Australia, but not for Camden Sound. Pseudocolochirus axiologus (H. L. Clark) is raised out of synonymy with Pseudocolochirus violaceus (Théel). Thyone papuensis Théel is reported from Camden Sound and the species is reviewed and illustrated. We report Thyone pedata Semper from Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in northern Australia, but not for Camden Sound. The WA Naturalists Club visited “Camden Harbour” in 1990 and Marsh reported on the marine invertebrates. Two sea cucumber species from this report are included here. A phylogenetic tree is provided with sequences for species of Colochirus and Plesiocolochirus. A table is provided with a list of all sea cucumbers collected from Camden Sound. Tissue samples for genetic analysis were taken from all specimens, and tissue data are listed in two tables. Two Pilumnidae crabs were found in the coelom of the new species Plesiocolochirus minaeus.","PeriodicalId":53647,"journal":{"name":"Memoirs of Museum Victoria","volume":"200 1","pages":"7-52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78238791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cretaceous marine amniotes of Australia: perspectives on a decade of new research","authors":"B. Kear","doi":"10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.03","url":null,"abstract":"Kear, B.P. 2016. Cretaceous marine amniotes of Australia: perspectives on a decade of new research. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74: 17–28. Cretaceous marine amniote fossils have been documented from Australia for more than 150 years, however, their global significance has only come to the fore in the last decade. This recognition is a product of accelerated research coupled with spectacular new discoveries from the Aptian–Albian epeiric sequences of the Eromanga Basin – especially the opal-bearing deposits of South Australia and vast lagerstätten exposures of central-northern Queensland. Novel fragmentary records have also surfaced in Cenomanian and Maastrichtian strata from Western Australia. The most notable advances include a proliferation of plesiosaurian taxa, as well as detailed characterization of the ‘last surviving’ ichthyosaurian Platypterygius, and some of the stratigraphically oldest protostegid sea turtles based on exceptionally preserved remains. Compositionally, the Australian assemblages provide a unique window into the otherwise poorly known Early Cretaceous marine amniote faunas of Gondwana. Their association with freezing high latitude palaeoenvironments is also extremely unusual, and evinces a climate change coincident diversity turnover incorporating the nascent radiation of lineages that went on to dominate later Mesozoic seas.","PeriodicalId":53647,"journal":{"name":"Memoirs of Museum Victoria","volume":"117 1","pages":"17-28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85469482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quantifying scientific significance of a fossil site: the Gogo Fossil sites (Late Devonian, Western Australia) as a case study","authors":"J. Long","doi":"10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.02","url":null,"abstract":"Long, J.A. 2016. Quantifying scientific significance of a fossil site: the Gogo Fossil sites (Late Devonian, Western Australia) as a case study. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74: 5–15. Assessing the scientific significance of fossil sites has up to now been largely a matter of subjective opinion with few or no metrics being employed. By applying similar metrics used for assessing academic performance, both qualitative and quantitative, to fossil sites we gain a real indication of their significance that enables direct comparison with other sites both nationally and globally. Indices suggested are those using total pages published for both peer-reviewed and combined peer-reviewed and popular publications, total citations from the papers, total impact points for site (citing palaeontologyrelated papers only), total number of very high impact papers (VHIP; journal impact factor>30) and social media metrics. These provide a measure of how much the published fossil data from a site has been utilised. The Late Devonian fossils of the Gogo Formation of Western Australia are here used as an example of how these metrics can be applied. The Gogo sites for example, have produced c.4384 pages of peer-reviewed papers (c.5458 total combined with popular works); generated papers with a total impact point score of 611, including 10 VHI papers, and generated 4009 citations. The sites have an overall h-index of 33. Combing these into a Scientific Site Significance Index (SSSI) will permit direct comparisons of site significance to be made for initiating discussions about site protection, tourism, geopark status, local heritage listings or potential future world heritage nominations.","PeriodicalId":53647,"journal":{"name":"Memoirs of Museum Victoria","volume":"12 1","pages":"5-15"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87982293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Archer, Olivia Christmas, S. Hand, K. Black, P. Creaser, H. Godthelp, I. Graham, D. Cohen, D. A. Arena, Caitlin Anderson, G. Soares, Naomi Machin, R. Beck, L. A. Wilson, Troy J Myers, A. Gillespie, B. Khoo, K. Travouillon
{"title":"Earliest known record of a hypercarnivorous dasyurid (Marsupialia), from newly discovered carbonates beyond the Riversleigh world Heritage area, north Queensland","authors":"M. Archer, Olivia Christmas, S. Hand, K. Black, P. Creaser, H. Godthelp, I. Graham, D. Cohen, D. A. Arena, Caitlin Anderson, G. Soares, Naomi Machin, R. Beck, L. A. Wilson, Troy J Myers, A. Gillespie, B. Khoo, K. Travouillon","doi":"10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.13","url":null,"abstract":"Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum gen. et sp. nov. is a new, highly specialised hypercarnivorous dasyuromorphian from a new mid-Cenozoic limestone deposit southwest of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northwestern Queensland. Dental dimensions suggest it may have weighed at least twice as much as the living Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii). Although known only from a lower molar, it exhibits a plethora of carnivorous adaptations including a hypertrophied protoconid, tiny metaconid and a battery of vertical carnassial blades between most of the major cusps, most of which incorporate carnassial notches to immobilise materials being sheared. It is unique among dasyuromorphians in having a massive entoconid that closes the entire lingual side of the talonid. Comparison with previously known thylacinid and dasyurid hypercarnivores suggests its relationships are closer to dasyurids than thylacinids in the main because of the very large entoconid, a cusp that is relatively small to absent in all known thylacinids but commonly small to large in dasyurids. However, the extent of enlargement of the entoconid suggests that it is not closely related to previously known Cenozoic hypercarnivorous dasyurids in the genera Dasyurus, Glaucodon, Sarcophilus or any of the other previously described Cenozoic dasyurids. Although the early late Miocene Ganbulanyi djadjinguli is only known from an upper molar, the reduced area of its protocone suggests a correspondingly reduced rather than hypertrophied entoconid in its as-yet-unknown lower molars. Reconsideration of the structure of the talonid in species of Sarcophilus even suggests that within that Quaternary lineage, the entoconid may have been entirely lost, with the posteriorly displaced metaconid taking its functional place as an occlusal counterpart for the blades of the protocone. The large size of the new species signals the earliest indication within the dasyurid radiation of a late Cenozoic trend towards gigantism that became evident in many lineages of Australian marsupials. While the age is uncertain, on the basis of associated taxa such as species of Ekaltadeta, it is probably either mid or late Miocene in age. Geological features of the deposit suggest it was formed within a pool in a cave environment that periodically underwent desiccation. Some grains suggest an aeolian as well as an alluvial and pluvial origin for the deposit. This may relate to current understanding about environmental change that took place in the region following the mid Miocene climate oscillation.","PeriodicalId":53647,"journal":{"name":"Memoirs of Museum Victoria","volume":"1 1","pages":"137-150"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89252115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Morphological variation of stratigraphically important species in the genus Pilosisporites Delcourt & Sprumont, 1955 in the Gippsland Basin, southeastern Australia","authors":"Doris Seegets-Villiers, B. Wagstaff","doi":"10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.08","url":null,"abstract":"Seegets-Villiers, D.E. and Wagstaff, B.E. 2016. Morphological variation of stratigraphically important species in the genus Pilosisporites Delcourt & Sprumont, 1955 in the Gippsland Basin, southeastern Australia. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74: 81–91. Three hundred and ninety eight mudstone samples of Early Cretaceous age from the onshore part of the Gippsland Basin in southeastern Australia were used to ascertain the morphological variation in three species of spores in the genus Pilosisporites. In Australia all species of Pilosisporites are biostratigraphically useful and this study confirms that in the Gippsland Basin the ranges of Pilosisporites notensis, Pilosisporites parvispinosus and Pilosisporites grandis are as defined by some previous authors. Morphological variations of these three taxa from the published descriptions are discussed. In the case of P. grandis and P. parvispinosus the main variation was in the size of specimens, however P. notensis showed sculpture variations in regard to element size, type and distribution. Two distinct types of this species were defined with only one occurring in the youngest part of the section. Modern fern species can exhibit similar spore sculpture and size variations as a result of polyploidy. This could possibly be the cause of the variations in all three species of Pilosisporites and also their short-lived, in geological terms, species ranges.","PeriodicalId":53647,"journal":{"name":"Memoirs of Museum Victoria","volume":"51 1","pages":"81-91"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89283854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Palorchestes from the Pliocene Hamilton Local Fauna, Victoria, Australia","authors":"Ernest L. Lundelelius","doi":"10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.22","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53647,"journal":{"name":"Memoirs of Museum Victoria","volume":"29 1","pages":"325-330"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90806689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A late Oligocene waipatiid dolphin (Odontoceti: Waipatiidae) from Victoria, Australia","authors":"E. Fitzgerald","doi":"10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.12","url":null,"abstract":"Fitzgerald, E.M.G. 2016. A late Oligocene waipatiid dolphin (Odontoceti: Waipatiidae) from Victoria, Australia. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74: 117–136. A partial odontocete skeleton comprising isolated teeth, forelimb elements, ribs, and vertebrae is described from the upper Oligocene (Chattian) Jan Juc Marl of Jan Juc, Victoria, southeast Australia. Its dental and forelimb characters most closely resemble those of the late Oligocene Waipatia and Sulakocetus from New Zealand and the Caucasus, respectively; thus the Jan Juc odontocete is referred to an indeterminate species in the family Waipatiidae (Platanistoidea). This specimen represents the first report of Waipatiidae in Australia, expands the taxonomic diversity of Australian Oligocene Cetacea, and shows that Waipatiidae occurred in the Chattian cetacean assemblages of both Australia and New Zealand.","PeriodicalId":53647,"journal":{"name":"Memoirs of Museum Victoria","volume":"32 1","pages":"117-136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82852255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New specimens of ektopodontids (Marsupialia: Ektopodontidae) from South Australia","authors":"N. Pledge","doi":"10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.15","url":null,"abstract":"Pledge, N.S. 2016. New specimens of ektopodontids (Marsupialia: Ektopodontidae) from South Australia. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74: 173–187. Knowledge about the extinct phalangeroid family Ektopodontidae is increased by the discovery of new material from several localities. Previously unknown teeth of Chunia illuminata and Ektopodon stirtoni are described respectively from White Sands Basin and Mammalon Hill, Lake Palankarinna, Lake Eyre Basin, South Australia, with M1 being recorded for the first time for any species of Chunia., and a full maxilla of Ektopodon stirtoni showing the positional relationship between P3 and M1 for the first time; this is even more extreme than the arrangement postulated previously. Another species Ektopodon litolophus has been described on the basis of an M1 found at the Leaf Locality, Lake Ngapakaldi, Lake Eyre Basin. Material from Lake Tarkarooloo, referred to Ektopodon stirtoni, is redescribed as a new species Ektopodon tommosi. Comparisons of M1 of Chunia and Ektopodon species now allow evolutionary trends, such as increasing number of cusps on the molar lophs, and simplification of the cusps, to be discerned.","PeriodicalId":53647,"journal":{"name":"Memoirs of Museum Victoria","volume":"121 1","pages":"173-187"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78426746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A revised faunal list and geological setting for Bullock Creek, a Camfieldian site from the Northern Territory of Australia","authors":"L. Schwartz","doi":"10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.20","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.20","url":null,"abstract":"Schwartz, L.R.S. 2016. A revised faunal list and geological setting for Bullock Creek, a Camfieldian site from the Northern Territory of Australia. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74: 263–290. The Camfield beds, in which the Bullock Creek Local Fauna occurs, is a freshwater carbonate unit deposited in a braided-meandering river environment in which abandoned channels formed oxbow lakes. Fossil quarries in the Small Hills outcrop occur in stratigraphically superposed beds. Despite this, there are no detectable changes to the fauna obtained at different levels that demonstrate a significant biochronologic time difference. Within the small mammal fauna, macropodoids are the most abundant group at Bullock Creek. Two species have been described, Balbaroo camfieldensis and Nambaroo bullockensis. A number of other macropodid taxa are also present. A diverse ‘possum’ fauna is found here, in addition to the miralinids Barguru maru and Barguru kayir, including the phalangerid Wyulda sp. cf. asherjoeli. Dasyuromorphians are also present, as are yaraloid peramelemorphians, including a species referred to Yarala.","PeriodicalId":53647,"journal":{"name":"Memoirs of Museum Victoria","volume":"NS20 8 1","pages":"263-290"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77829488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Beck, N. Warburton, M. Archer, S. Hand, K. Aplin
{"title":"Going underground: Postcranial morphology of the early miocene marsupial mole naraboryctes philcreaseri and the evolution of fossoriality in notoryctemorphians","authors":"R. Beck, N. Warburton, M. Archer, S. Hand, K. Aplin","doi":"10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24199/J.MMV.2016.74.14","url":null,"abstract":"We present the first detailed descriptions of postcranial elements of the fossil marsupial mole Naraboryctes philcreaseri (Marsupialia: Notoryctemorphia), from early Miocene freshwater limestone deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland. Qualitative functional analysis of these elements suggest that Na. philcreaseri was very well-adapted for burrowing, albeit somewhat less so than the living marsupial moles Notoryctes typhlops and N. caurinus. Quadratic discriminant analysis of limb measurements suggests that Na. philcreaseri was subterranean, and its Index of Fossorial Ability is almost identical to that of Notoryctes species, being among the highest known for any mammal. These results suggest that notoryctemorphians evolved their specialised, “mole-like” subterranean lifestyle prior to the early Miocene. Given that forested environments predominated in Australia until the middle-late Miocene, this transition to subterranean behaviour may have occurred via burrowing in forest floors, in which case fossorial mammals that live in tropical rainforests today (such as the placental golden moles Chrysospalax trevelyani and Huetia leucorhina) may represent reasonable living analogues for early notoryctemorphians. However, alternative scenarios, such as a cave-dwelling or semi-aquatic ancestry, should be considered. Phylogenetic analysis using a Bayesian total evidence dating approach places Naraboryctes as sister to Notoryctes with strong support (Bayesian posterior probability = 0.91), and indicates that Naraboryctes and Notoryctes diverged 30.3 MYA (95% HPD: 17.7-46.3 MYA). The age and known morphology of Na. philcreaseri does not preclude its being ancestral to Notoryctes. Using estimates of divergence times and ratios of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions per site, we infer that the nuclear gene “Retinol-binding protein 3, interstitial” (RBP3), which plays a key role in vision, became inactive in the Notoryctes lineage ~5.4 MYA (95% HPD: 4.5-6.3 MYA). This is much younger than previous published estimates, and postdates considerably the age of Na. philcreaseri, implying that RBP3 was active in this fossil taxon; hence, Na. philcreaseri may have retained a functional visual system. Our estimate for the inactivation of RBP3 in the Notoryctes lineage coincides with palaeobotanical evidence for a major increase in the abundance of grasses in Australia, which may indicate the appearance of more open environments, and hence selection pressure on notoryctemorphians to spend less time on the surface, leading to relaxed selection on RBP3. Ultimately, however, a fuller understanding of the origin and evolution of notoryctemorphians-including when and why they became “mole-like”-will require improvements in the Palaeogene fossil record of mammals in Australia","PeriodicalId":53647,"journal":{"name":"Memoirs of Museum Victoria","volume":"54 1","pages":"151-171"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81319219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}