Ekaltadeta

Ekaltadeta
Temporal range: Late Oligocene–Miocene
Restoration of Ekaltadeta ima
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Hypsiprymnodontidae
Genus: †Ekaltadeta
Mike Archer & Flannery, 1985[1]
Species
  • †Ekaltadeta ima Archer & Flannery, 1985 (type species)
  • †Ekaltadeta jamiemulvaneyi Wroe, 1996
  • †Ekaltadeta wellingtonensis Archer & Flannery, 1985

Ekaltadeta is an extinct genus of marsupials related to the modern musky rat-kangaroos.[2][3][4] Ekaltadeta was present in what is today the Riversleigh formations in Northern Queensland from the Late Oligocene to the Miocene, and the genus includes three species.[5][6] The genus is hypothesized to have been either exclusively carnivorous, or omnivorous with a fondness for meat, based on the chewing teeth found in fossils.[6] This conclusion is based mainly on the size and shape of a large buzz-saw-shaped cheek-tooth, the adult third premolar, which is common to all Ekaltadeta.[7]

Fossils of the animals include two near complete skulls, and numerous upper and lower jaws.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Archer1985 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "QMF12423 Ekaltadeta ima". learning.qm.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wroe1996 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference fossilworks was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference wakaleo,net was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference AM was invoked but never defined (see the help page).