Taxonomy and palaeobiology of the largest-ever marsupial, Diprotodon Owen, 1838 (Diprotodontidae, Marsupialia)
Author
Price, Gilbert J.
text
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
2008
2008-06-30
153
2
369
397
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-lookup/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00387.x
journal article
10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00387.x
0024-4082
5447600
LAKE CALLABONNA
DIPROTODON
DENTAL MORPHOMETRIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL
COMPARISON
Both size classes of
Diprotodon
are undoubtedly represented in the Lake Callabonna
Diprotodon
assemblage (
Fig. 8
). More than 100 teeth were investigated from the deposits. Both dentary and tooth morphology are similar to that of the Darling Downs, Reddestone Creek and Myall Creek
Diprotodon
assemblages and thus do not warrant additional description.
The mean dimensions of most cheek teeth are similar to those of other assemblages examined in this study, and most means overlap at one standard deviation (
Tables 2
,
3
). However, the mean dimensions of some teeth from the Lake Callabonna assemblage are 5–6% larger than corresponding teeth of other assemblages (e.g. M
4
;
Table 2
). In the case of the M
4
, the mean is based on a small sample size (
N
= 6). The dimension of the M
4
is similar to Mean (standard deviation, coefficient of variation). ‘All localities’ combines the Darling Downs, Bacchus Marsh, Lake Callabonna, Myall Creek, Lancefield Swamp and Reddestone Creek data sets, as well as morphometric data for specimens from other localities available for study.
Table 3.
Lower cheek teeth dimensions (mm) for
Diprotodon
| Tooth |
Locality |
Length |
Anterior width |
Posterior width |
N
|
| P3 |
All localities |
18.6 (1.3, 7) |
12.8 (1.2, 9.4) |
13.6 (1, 7.4) |
25 |
| Darling Downs |
19.6 (0.8, 4.1) |
13.3 (0.6, 4.5) |
13.7 (0.8, 4.5) |
4 |
| Bacchus Marsh |
18.0 (1.3, 7.2) |
12.4 (1.2, 9.7) |
13.6 (0.8. 5.9) |
14 |
| Lake Callabonna |
– |
– |
– |
0 |
| Myall Creek |
19.5 (1.8, 9.2) |
14.1 (1.2, 8.5) |
13.9 (1.8, 12.9) |
2 |
| Lancefield Swamp |
19.1 (0.5, 2.6) |
12.8 (0.2, 1.6) |
14.1 (0.2, 1.4) |
3 |
| Reddestone Creek |
– |
– |
– |
0 |
| M1 |
All localities |
35.4 (2.7, 7.6) |
20.6 (1.6, 7.8) |
23.4 (1.7, 7.3) |
70 |
| Darling Downs |
35.2 (2, 5.7) |
20.9 (2.1, 10) |
23.5 (2.5, 10.6) |
15 |
| Bacchus Marsh |
34.4 (2.4, 7) |
20.1 (1.1, 5.5) |
23.1 (1.2, 5.2) |
27 |
| Lake Callabonna |
37.6 (1.9, 5.1) |
19.3 (1.7, 8.8) |
23.2 (1.2, 5.2) |
7 |
| Myall Creek |
36.4 (2.2, 6) |
21.5 (1, 4.7) |
24.1 (0.7, 2.9) |
4 |
| Lancefield Swamp |
37.3 (1.5, 4) |
21.9 (0.7, 3.2) |
21.1 (0.8, 3.8) |
3 |
| Reddestone Creek |
– |
– |
– |
0 |
| M2 |
All localities |
43.5 (2.8, 6.4) |
28.4 (2.4, 8.5) |
29.0 (1.9, 6.6) |
120 |
| Darling Downs |
43.4 (2.3, 5.3) |
28.0 (2.3, 8.2) |
28.6 (1.7, 5.9) |
24 |
| Bacchus Marsh |
41.8 (2.4, 5.7) |
27.6 (1.4, 5.1) |
29.1 (1.8, 6.2) |
32 |
| Lake Callabonna |
44.8 (2.9, 6.5) |
28.3 (2.8, 9.9) |
28.7 (2.3, 8) |
16 |
| Myall Creek |
43.9 (0.8, 1.8) |
31.8 (2.4, 7.5) |
31.2 (2.9, 9.3) |
3 |
| Lancefield Swamp |
45.5 (1.9, 4.2) |
29.2 (2.8, 9.6) |
29.7 (1.1, 3.7) |
15 |
| Reddestone Creek |
45.6 (0.4, 0.9) |
33.0 (4.7, 14.2) |
29.6 |
2 |
| M3 |
All localities |
53.4 (3.8, 7.1) |
35.6 (2.9, 8.1) |
36.4 (2.9, 8) |
140 |
| Darling Downs |
53.3 (3.2, 6) |
35.6 (2.9, 8.1) |
36.4 (2.5, 6.9) |
31 |
| Bacchus Marsh |
52.0 (2.8, 5.4) |
35.1 (2.3, 6.6) |
36.5 (1.9, 5.2) |
34 |
| Lake Callabonna |
55.2 (4.4, 8) |
36.1 (2.8, 7.8) |
37.3 (2.6, 7) |
19 |
| Myall Creek |
53.5 (2.6, 4.9) |
34.6 (2.3, 6.6) |
34.8 (2.2, 6.3) |
7 |
| Lancefield Swamp |
54.5 (1.9, 3.5) |
36.3 (1.3, 3.6) |
37.0 (1.7, 4.6) |
11 |
| Reddestone Creek |
52.1 |
34 |
35.6 |
1 |
| M4 |
All localities |
56.9 (2.8, 4.9) |
37.8 (2.7, 7.1) |
36.9 (2.8, 7.6) |
138 |
| Darling Downs |
55.7 (3.1, 5.6) |
37.4 (2.8, 7.5) |
36.1 (2.2, 6.1) |
29 |
| Bacchus Marsh |
55.0 (2.7, 4.9) |
37.6 (2.4, 6.4) |
36.6 (1.9, 5.2) |
30 |
| Lake Callabonna |
57.5 (3.7, 6.4) |
37.8 (2.7, 7.1) |
36.8 (3.7, 10.1) |
18 |
| Myall Creek |
59.2 (2.5, 4.2) |
38.0 (1.9, 5) |
38.2 (1.4, 3.7) |
13 |
| Lancefield Swamp |
59.1 (2.8, 4.7) |
39.1 (2.3, 5.9) |
38.1 (2.1, 5.5) |
10 |
| Reddestone Creek |
58.0 (2.3, 4) |
38.6 (1.9, 4.9) |
37.2 (4, 10.8) |
8 |
that of the large form from the Darling Downs (
Tables 1–3
). Thus, such results may be the product of sampling bias; those teeth could conceivably be solely represented by the large-form
Diprotodon
, therefore skewing the mean. Dimensions of other teeth from the Lake Callabonna assemblage do not vary more than 1–2% in comparison with other assemblages (
Tables 2
,
3
). Additionally, there is an observable morphometric overlap in teeth size between large- and small-form Lake Callabonna
Diprotodon
(
Fig. 11
).