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A new late Pleistocene diprotodontid (Marsupialia) from Pureni, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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A new zygomaturine diprotodontid, Hulith erium tomasellii gen. et sp. nov., from 38 000-year-old swamp sediments at Pureni, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea is the largest mammal yet known from the Quaternary of New Guinea. Possibly the sister taxon to species of Zygomaturus, the new genus is represented by a partial skull and parts of the postcranial skeleton. Estimated to have weighed 75-200 kg, H. tomasettii was probably a browser. Its hindlimb morphology suggests that it had a greater joint mobility than is known in any other diprotodontid, and this in turn hints that it was probably not graviportal.

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Field Value
Title A new late Pleistocene diprotodontid (Marsupialia) from Pureni, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/145ff8c2-436b-4339-acd5-ac30dbd0dc72
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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  "type": "Polygon"
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Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "A new late Pleistocene diprotodontid (Marsupialia) from Pureni, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/a-new-late-pleistocene-diprotodontid-marsupialia-from-pureni-southern-highlands-province-papua-