Mutpuracinus

{{Short description|Extinct species of marsupial}} {{more citations needed|date=June 2010}} {{Speciesbox | fossil_range = {{Fossil range|Middle Miocene}} | taxon = Mutpuracinus archibaldi | authority = Murray & Megirian, 2000<ref name="Murray2000">{{cite journal |last1=Murray |first1=P. |last2=Megirian |first2=D. |title=Two New Genera and Three New Species of Thylacinidae (Marsupialia) from the Miocene of the Northern Territory, Australia |journal=The Beagle: Occasional Papers of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences |date=2000 |volume=16 |pages=145–162 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/254543}}</ref> }}

'''''Mutpuracinus archibaldi''''' is an extinct carnivorous, quadrupedal marsupial that lived during the middle Miocene and is the smallest known thylacinid at approximately 1.1 kilograms, the size of a quoll, though, more closely related to the recently extinct thylacine.

''M. archibaldi'' would have resembled a dog with a long snout. Its molar teeth were specialized for carnivory, the cups and crest were reduced or elongated to give the molars a cutting blade.

Fossils of ''M. archibaldi'' have been discovered in deposits at Bullock Creek (Northern Territory) in the Northern Territory of Australia, and in the same deposits as ''Nimbacinus richi''. It is named in honor of Ian Archibald for his contributions to the northern territory. Fossil specimens of ''M. archibaldi'' include a premaxilla with alveoli for four incisors, and the holotype, a left maxilla. thylacinid skull fossils are exceedingly rare and ''M. archiboldi'' is one of only three species known from fossil crania.<ref name="Murray2006">{{cite journal |last1=Murray |first1=P. |last2=Megirian |first2=D. |title=Cranial morphology of the Miocene thylacinid ''Mutpuracinus archibaldi'' (Thylacinidae, Marsupialia) and relationships within the Dasyuromorphia |journal=Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology |date=2006 |volume=30 |pages=229–276 |doi=10.1080/03115510609506865 |bibcode=2006Alch...30S.229M }}</ref>

==Taxonomy == The description of a new species and genus was published in 2000, the results of examination of fossil material discovered at the "Blast Site", associated with the Bullock Creek fossil beds in the Northern Territory. The describing authors, Peter F. Murray and Dirk Megirian, assigned the name '''''Mutpuracinus''''' to the new thylacinid genus, combining the Ancient Greek ''kynos'', alluding to the canid family of dogs and wolves, and the word ''mutpura'' in reference to an Indigenous Australian people associated with the district at Camfield.<ref name="Murray2000" />

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacine/relics/Tertiary_3.htm Natural Worlds] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009113547/http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacine/relics/Tertiary_3.htm |date=2007-10-09 }} *[http://www.hs.reitaku-u.ac.jp/english/ic/rpaper/2004/tastiger/body.htm Thylacindae] *[http://australianmuseum.net.au/Nimbacinus-dicksoni Australian Mammalia] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20101226135720/http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/publications/museums/pdf/beagle/beaglev16_p145.pdf MURRAY. P AND MEGIRIAN. D., Two new genera and three new species of Thylacinidae (Marsupialia) from the Miocene of the Northern Territory, Australia]

Category:Prehistoric thylacines Category:Prehistoric mammals of Australia Category:Miocene marsupials Category:Prehistoric marsupial genera