Crocodylidae Cuvier, 1807

Louys, Julien & Price, Gilbert J., 2015, The Chinchilla Local Fauna: An exceptionally rich and well-preserved Pliocene vertebrate assemblage from fluviatile deposits of south-eastern Queensland, Australia, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 60 (3), pp. 551-572 : 554-555

Family Crocodylidae Cuvier, 1807 Genus Pallimnarchus de Vis, 1886

Type species: Pallimnarchus pollens de Vis, 1886 , type locality and age unknown.

Pallimnarchus pollens de Vis, 1886 Fig. 4F .

Material.— QM F11612 (symphyseal portion of dentary) from “Sand Scree locality, 4’6” from top of bank of Condamine River”, Chinchilla, Australia, Pliocene; QM F1154 (premaxilla) and QM F1166 (quadrate) from Chinchilla, Australia, Pliocene; QM F30583 (femur) from north bank of the Condamine River, Chinchilla Rifle Range, Australia, Pliocene.

Remarks.— De Vis (1886) described crocodilian material from the “Condamine drift” to which he assigned the name Pallimnarchus pollens . Molnar (1982b: 658) states that “De Vis did not designate a type specimen for Pallemnarchus [sic!] pollens , but described together material from four (possibly five) individuals of at least two, probably three, different taxa. De Vis’ intention with regard to the type material cannot be deduced from the labels or the register entries, as the former treat all the specimens described by de Vis (1886), with the exception of the maxillary piece, as syntypes, while the register designates QM F1149 (two articulated dentaries) as the type. The maxillary piece figured by de Vis (1886: pl. 10) was not recognised in the collections.” Molnar (1982b) formalised the species Pallimnarchus pollens by designating a symphyseal portion of the dentary as the lectotype ( QM F1149), noting that while the type locality was unknown, it was probably from the Darling Downs. He did refer several Chinchilla specimens (including QM F11612, F1154, and F1166) to this species. Willis and Molnar’s (1999) revision of this genus does not change that. Subsequently, Mackness et al. (2010) added an additional pathological specimen ( QM F30583) to the hypodigm (a femur showing fracture and puncture wounds).

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—Pliocene to Pleistocene; central and eastern mainland Australia.

Genus Quinkana Molnar, 1981

Type species: Quinkana fortirostrum Molnar, 1981 , Tea Tree Cave near Chillagoe, Queensland, Pleistocene .

Quinkana sp.

Fig. 4B .

Material.— QM F10204 (tooth) and QM F10205 (tooth) from Chinchilla Rifle Range, Australia, Pliocene; QM F1152 (jugal) from Chinchilla, Australia, Pliocene.

Remarks.— Molnar (1981) refers to two isolated teeth and a jugal from a ziphodont crocodile from the Chinchilla Sand. He considered them to be referrable to Quinkana .

Order Squamata Oppel, 1811

Family Agamidae Hardwicke and Gray, 1827 Agamidae gen. et sp. indet.

Fig. 4A .

Material.—QM F56197, unidentified fragments from Chinchilla Rifle Range, Australia, Pliocene.

Remarks. —Specimens supposed to represent agamids by Hutchinson and Mackness (2002) previously held in a private collection (WPC) were accessioned into the collections of the QM (see SOM: Table 1, Supplementary Online Material available at http://app.pan.pl/SOM/app60-Louys_Price_ SOM.pdf). However the specimen referred to the Agamidae by Hutchinson and Mackness (2002; WPC1354) does not correspond with the specimen of that number donated to the QM by the collectors (Ces and Doris Wilkinson, WPC). The specimen in question (now registered as QM F56197; Fig. 4A ) is a damaged and poorly preserved fossil in three pieces which can at best be referred to indeterminate? Reptilia. A similar error most likely explains the incorrect assignment of several specimens referred to as? Megalania by Hutchinson and Mackness (2002), which are clearly not squamates (see below).

Figures

Fig. 4. Reptiles from Chinchilla Sand, Australia, Pliocene. A.?Reptilia, QM F56197, Chinchilla Rifle Range, unidentified fragments (A 1 –A 3), showing the WPC registration numbers of Agamidae sp. indet. cited by Hutchinson and Mackness (2002). B. Varanus sp. QM F56189, “Wilkinson’s Quarry” Chinchilla Rifle Range, dorsal vertebra. C. Quinkana sp., QM F10204, Chinchilla Rifle Range, isolated tooth. D. Trionychidae sp. indet. QM F9037, Fairymeadow, carapace fragment. E. Emydura sp., QM F7035, Middle Gully, Chinchilla Rifle Range, anterior half of carapace. F. Pallimnarchus pollens de Vis, 1886, QM F11612, “Sand Scree locality, 4’6” from top of bank of Condamine River”, symphyseal portion of dentary. G. Varanus komodoensis Ouwens, 1912, QM F874, unspecified locality near Chinchilla, right maxilla. Scale bars 20 mm.