Mutpuracinus archibaldi

Mutpuracinus archibaldi is an extinct carnivorous, quadrupedal marsupial that lived during the middle Miocene and is the smallest known thylacinid at approximately 1.1 kilograms, the size of a quoll, though, more closely related to the recently extinct thylacine.

Mutpuracinus archibaldi
Temporal range: Middle Miocene
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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Dasyuromorphia
Family: †Thylacinidae
Genus: †Mutpuracinus
Species:
†M. archibaldi
Binomial name
†Mutpuracinus archibaldi
Murray & Megirian, 2000[1]

M. archibaldi would have resembled a dog with a long snout. Its molar teeth were specialized for carnivory, the cups and crest were reduced or elongated to give the molars a cutting blade.

Fossils of M. archibaldi have been discovered in deposits at Bullock Creek (Northern Territory) in the Northern Territory of Australia, and in the same deposits as Nimbacinus richi. It is named in honor of Ian Archibald for his contributions to the northern territory. Fossil specimens of M. archibaldi include a premaxilla with alveoli for four incisors, and the holotype, a left maxilla. thylacinid skull fossils are exceedingly rare and M. archiboldi is one of only three species known from fossil crania.

Taxonomy

The description of a new species and genus was published in 2000, the results of examination of fossil material discovered at the "Blast Site", associated with the Bullock Creek fossil beds in the Northern Territory. The describing authors, Peter F. Murray and Dirk Megirian, assigned the name Mutpuracinus to the new thylacinid genus, combining the Ancient Greek kynos, alluding to the canid family of dogs and wolves, and the word mutpura in reference to an Indigenous Australian people associated with the district at Camfield.[1]

References
  1. Murray, P.; Megirian, D. (2000). "Two New Genera and Three New Species of Thylacinidae (Marsupialia) from the Miocene of the Northern Territory, Australia". The Beagle : occasional papers of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences. 16: 145–162.


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