Propleopus
Propleopus is an extinct genus of marsupials. The genus contains three species: P. chillagoensis from the Plio-Pleistocene, and P. oscillans and P. wellingtonensis from the Pleistocene.

Jack T. Woods (1960) · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- PropleopinaePBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Marsupialia
- Life habit
- scansorialPBDB, for Marsupialia
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia
Time the record covers
At least 3.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka.
8 occurrences of Propleopus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
8 occurrences- Pliocene13%
- Pleistocene88%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
2 formations
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The named rock units Propleopus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Propleopus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Propleopus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
119 taxa- Procoptodon rapha4 sites
- Aepyprymnus rufescens3 sites
- Diprotodon optatum3 sites
- Macropus goliah3 sites
- Thylacoleo carnifex3 sites
- Isoodon obesulus2 sites
- Macropodinae2 sites
- Macropus2 sites
- Macropus (Macropus) giganteus2 sites
- Macropus rufogriseus2 sites
- Mastacomys2 sites
- Phascogale2 sites
- Procoptodon pusio2 sites
- Protemnodon anak2 sites
- Simosthenurus brachyselenis2 sites
- Simosthenurus occidentalis2 sites
- Simosthenurus pales2 sites
- Thylacinus cynocephalus2 sites
- Trichosurus vulpecula2 sites
- Varanus2 sites
- Vombatus2 sites
- Zygomaturus trilobus2 sites
- Antechinus flavipes1 site
- Antechinus minimus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Propleopus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
6 references- Revision of the Extinct Gigantic Rat Kangaroos (Potoroidae: Marsupialia), with Description of a New Miocene Genus and Species and a New Pleistocene Species of Propleopus3
- Mesozoic to early Quaternary mammal faunas of Victoria, South-East Australia1
- The upper fossil fauna of the Henschke fossil cave, Naracoorte, South Australia1
- Marsupial fossils from Wellington Caves, New South Wales; the historic and scientific significance of the collections in the Australian Museum, Sydney1
- A Diprotodon ulna chewed by the marsupial lion,Thylacoleo carnifex1
- Lancefield swamp and the extinction of the Australian megafauna1
Each of the 8 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Propleopus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Jack T. Woods (1960)
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Propleopus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Propleopus”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itPropleopinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Longman 1924