Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Dasyuromorphia > Malleodectidae > Malleodectes

Malleodectes

Wikipedia Abstract

Malleodectes is a marsupial discovered in 2011 at Riversleigh, Queensland, Australia. It could grow as large as a ferret, and lived in the Miocene, 17 million years ago. The reason for its name "Hammer Biter" is because it has blunt, hammer like teeth, not known from any other mammal extant or extinct. However, Scott Hocknull from the Queensland Museum has noticed similarities to the modern pink-tongued skink (Cyclodomorphus gerrardii), a reptile specialised in eating snails. This suggests that Malleodectes too was a specialised snail hunter.
View Wikipedia Record: Malleodectes

Species

External References

Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0