Priscileo

Priscileo is a genus of late Oligocene bag lions until the early Miocene.

Features

Priscileo reached the size of a domestic cat today and had a calculated weight of about 2.7 kg. He was one of the smallest Dasyuridae Australia. Priscileo is known from only a few fossils, including a nearly complete skull and some other bones fragments and isolated teeth. The skull ( holotype specimen number QMF 23453 ) itself was only slightly longer than 8.3 cm, the zygomatic arches but very expansive. In the upper jaw, a typical marsupial dentition was with three incisors, one canine, three premolars and four molars each pine bough, but only the right and left last pre-and first two molars were actually handed in the preserved skull, the rest were on the individual alveoli are determined. Among the incisors was the first in each case the largest, the second smallest of the canine grew at almost the size of the first cutting tooth, but it is and the rear of the front teeth each separated by a diastema (all determined from the alveoli). The largest tooth in the dentition was the last premolar with 11 mm in length, back to the back teeth got smaller and smaller.

Paleobiology

The carnivore is nourishing Priscileo was an extremely adapted predators and probably lived in trees ( arboreal ). According to studies of the teeth he had in relation to its body weight a huge bite force. This was determined in comparison to 38 other Raubtiertaxa and is based on the ratio of skull size to the thickness of the masticatory muscles of the lower jaw today's carnivores in relation to the severity of the bony mandible. The resulting Beißkraftquotient determined at the position of the canines, refers to the statistical averaging of 100 So Priscileo reached a ratio of 196, the highest of all investigated taxa, which corresponds to an actual bite force of 184 Newton calculated. Comparatively high was just the quotient of the also extinct predator Beutler Thylacoleo with 194, but weighed an average of 109 kg and could muster 1.69 kN. A present-day Lion accordingly achieved with a Beißkraftquotienten of 112 less than 60 % of the force of Priscileo, but has nearly ten times the actual bite force of 1.77 kN. The quotient of the Tiger is 127 (1.52 kN), the higher the Jaguars with 137 (1.01 kN). A dingo as today's modern carnivores Australia has a Beißkraftquotienten of 108 (303 N), the peak value among the extant predators keeps the Tasmanian Devil with 181 (408 N). The lowest pointed contrast Thylacosmilus with 41, a fossil carnivore species in Australia, which occupied the niche of saber-toothed cats. These also have very low ratios. The Beißkraftquotient shows that Priscileo may have been able to impose his size far surpassing prey.

System

The closest relative of Priscileo is Wakaleo which forms the sister group together with Thylacoleo, but both exhibit by the reduction of the last molars already considerably more advanced features within the marsupial on. Occasionally Priscileo is also put in the Unterfamiliue the Thylacoleoninae together with Thylacoleo, which is characterized by the subfamily Wakaleoninae by the first unreduced premolars. From Priscileo two types are known: Priscileo pitikantensis Rauscher, 1987, lived in the Late Oligocene and is one of the Ngapakaldi - local fauna in South Australia, but only by an upper jaw fragment, handed down some teeth and low postcraniales skeletal material. Priscileo roskellyae Gillespie, 1997, is assigned to the, the complete skull, lived in the early Miocene and part of the Upper -side local fauna of Riversleigh on. The genus was, however, replaced by larger forms such as Wakaleo already in the middle Miocene. The name derives from the Latin word Priscileo priscus ( " old " ) and called for leo "lion" from.

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