Thylacoleonidae

Thylacoleonidae is a family of extinct carnivorous diprotodontian marsupials from Australia, referred to as marsupial lions. The best known is Thylacoleo carnifex, also called the marsupial lion. The clade ranged from the Late Oligocene to the Late Pleistocene, with some earlier species the size of a possum, while the youngest members of the family belonging to the genus Thylacoleo reached sizes comparable to living big cats.

Thylacoleonidae

Roderick T. Wells ,Aaron B. Camens · 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
VombatiformesPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Marsupialia
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Marsupialia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

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 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 52 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 13 of 52 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 52 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 34 of 52 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.6–3.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.7–2.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.8–1.9 Mya — about 7 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 18 occurrences23.04 Mya129 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

52 occurrences of Thylacoleonidae 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

52 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

8 formations

Nelson Bay — 38.60°S, 141.58°EWaite — 23.70°S, 133.88°EEtadunna — 28.35°S, 138.30°ECamfield Beds — 17.12°S, 131.52°EWipajiri — 27.75°S, 140.73°EKatipiri — 28.39°S, 138.32°ED Clay — 35.70°S, 144.83°EAllingham — 19.72°S, 145.60°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Thylacoleonidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 44 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thylacoleonidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Thylacoleonidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

359 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 49 sites for Thylacoleonidae, 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

36 references

Each of the 52 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. 24 further references are not listed. 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 Thylacoleonidae

Credit
Roderick T. Wells ,Aaron B. Camens
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Thylacoleonidae 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 itVombatiformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gill 1872