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- Date Submitted: 11/23/2012 08:09 PM
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Evolution Of The Australian Biota:
The Paljara Tirarense & The Sugar Glider
Evolution Of The Australian Biota:
The Paljara Tirarense & The Sugar Glider
The Paljara Tirarense
The Paljara Tirarense
The Paljara tirarense was a small ringtail possum (family Pseudocheiridae) from the early Miocene of South Australia and northwestern Queensland and belonged to the Oligocene Epoch era. Ringtail possums were once much more diverse than they are today, distributed across many now-dry parts of Australia that were once forested during the Cenozoic (“the time when continents moved into their present positions. The climate started warm, but global cooling continued steadily, and finally ice ages occurred. It was the era of mammals, birds and flowering plants and aquatic mammals took over the roles of predatory reptiles.”)
The distribution of The Paljara Tirarense population was scattered amoung Lake Ngapakaldi in the Tirari Desert, South Australia; and the Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site in northwestern Queensland.
The Riversleigh area from the early to middle Miocene was mainly woodland, with open areas near forest edges and freshwater streams or lakes in a limestone environment. At Riversleigh, Paljara tirarense co-existed with several other species of ringtail. Their second habitat, The Tirari Desert was composed of shrub lands, and the sparsely vegetated dune fields (which would become covered by a carpet of grasses, herbs and colourful flowering plants following rains).
Ringtail possums are ‘arboreal folivores’, meaning that they mainly feed on the leaves of trees as well as on fruits, flowers, and (in smaller species) mosses and lichens. Leaves do not provide an energy-rich diet, and pseudocheirids have efficient digestive systems to cope with the large quantities of leaves ingested.
Being apart of the marsupial family, The Paljara would have had tiny, hairless young that developed to maturity in a pouch after birth. Like other...
The Paljara Tirarense & The Sugar Glider
Evolution Of The Australian Biota:
The Paljara Tirarense & The Sugar Glider
The Paljara Tirarense
The Paljara Tirarense
The Paljara tirarense was a small ringtail possum (family Pseudocheiridae) from the early Miocene of South Australia and northwestern Queensland and belonged to the Oligocene Epoch era. Ringtail possums were once much more diverse than they are today, distributed across many now-dry parts of Australia that were once forested during the Cenozoic (“the time when continents moved into their present positions. The climate started warm, but global cooling continued steadily, and finally ice ages occurred. It was the era of mammals, birds and flowering plants and aquatic mammals took over the roles of predatory reptiles.”)
The distribution of The Paljara Tirarense population was scattered amoung Lake Ngapakaldi in the Tirari Desert, South Australia; and the Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site in northwestern Queensland.
The Riversleigh area from the early to middle Miocene was mainly woodland, with open areas near forest edges and freshwater streams or lakes in a limestone environment. At Riversleigh, Paljara tirarense co-existed with several other species of ringtail. Their second habitat, The Tirari Desert was composed of shrub lands, and the sparsely vegetated dune fields (which would become covered by a carpet of grasses, herbs and colourful flowering plants following rains).
Ringtail possums are ‘arboreal folivores’, meaning that they mainly feed on the leaves of trees as well as on fruits, flowers, and (in smaller species) mosses and lichens. Leaves do not provide an energy-rich diet, and pseudocheirids have efficient digestive systems to cope with the large quantities of leaves ingested.
Being apart of the marsupial family, The Paljara would have had tiny, hairless young that developed to maturity in a pouch after birth. Like other...