Quinkana

Quinkana is an extinct genus of mekosuchine crocodylians that lived in Australia from about 25 million to about 20,000 years ago, with the majority of fossils having been found in Queensland. Four species are currently recognized, all of which have been named between 1981 and 1997. The two best understood species are Q. fortirostrum, the type species, and Q. timara, a more gracile form from the Miocene. The other two species, Q. babarra and Q. meboldi, from the Pliocene and Oligocene respectively, are only known from a few poorly preserved bone fragments. The name Quinkana comes from the "Quinkans", a legendary folk spirit from Gugu-Yalanji mythology.

Quinkana

Mark Marathon · CC BY-SA 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
MekosuchiniPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 22 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Oligocene — about 1 of 12 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2 of 12 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 12 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 7 of 12 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.7–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences23.04 Mya129 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

12 occurrences of Quinkana 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

12 occurrences

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

4 formations

Camfield Beds — 17.12°S, 131.52°EAllingham — 19.72°S, 145.60°ECarl Creek Limestone — 19.08°S, 138.72°ETirari — 28.79°S, 138.41°E

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The named rock units Quinkana has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Quinkana and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Quinkana and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

66 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Quinkana, 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

8 references

Each of the 12 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 Quinkana

Credit
Mark Marathon
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Quinkana was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

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 itMekosuchini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Molnar 1982