Badjcinus

Badjcinus turnbulli is an extinct thylacinid marsupial.[1]

Badjcinus Temporal range: Late Oligocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Marsupialia
Order:	Dasyuromorphia
Family:	†Thylacinidae
Genus:	†Badjcinus
Species:	†B. turnbulli
Binomial name
†Badjcinus turnbulli Muirhead & Wroe, 1998[1]

Phylogenetic analysis shows that thylacines are a clade which does not include the dasyurids. Badjcinus was one of the most primitive members of its group, living 23 to 28 million years ago in the late Oligocene.[1]

The generic name combines the Wanyi Aboriginal language "badj", 'expert hunter', and a word from Ancient Greek "kynos", meaning 'dog', from which the Thylacinidae name was originally derived. The specific epithet was proposed by the authors to honour the contributions of William D. Turnbull to palaeontology.[1]

Badjcinus was quite small, averaging 5.2 pounds (2.4 kg) in weight. It was a carnivore, probably eating small vertebrates and insects, as living Dasyurus species do today. The fossils were found at Riversleigh in north-west Queensland, Australia. Since other animals at Riversleigh were rainforest species, it is possible that B. turnbulli was arboreal, like Dasyurus maculatus.[1]

References

1. Muirhead and Wroe, 1998.

Bibliography

• Muirhead, Jeanette; Wroe, Stephen (September 1998). "A New Genus and Species, Badjcinus turnbulli (Thylacinidae: Marsupialia), from the LateOligocene of Riversleigh, Northern Australia, and an Investigation of Thylacinid Phylogeny". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 18 (3): 612–626. doi:10.1080/02724634.1998.10011088.