Pseudophryne sp.

Tyler, Michael J. & Prideaux, Gavin J., 2016, Early to middle Pleistocene occurrences of Litoria, Neobatrachus and Pseudophryne (Anura) from the Nullarbor Plain, Australia: first frogs from the “ frog-free zone ”, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74, pp. 403-408 : 407

Pseudophryne sp. indet.

Referred specimens. Leaena’s Breath Cave, ilia: WAM 09.3.266, WAM 09.3.274, WAM 09.3.275 (unit 3).

Locality. The three specimens originated from infill sedimentary unit 3 within the main chamber of Leaena’s Breath Cave, Nullarbor Plain, southeastern Western Australia ( fig. 1 ; table 1). Unit 3 is of early Pleistocene age ( Prideaux et al., 2007) .

Remarks. A conspicuous feature is the curvature extending from the ventral face of the ilial shaft to the pre-acetabular zone, forming a perfect quadrant. The acetabulum is large, with a slightly raised, narrow peripheral rim. The dorsal prominence and protuberance are only slightly elevated, and the dorsal acetabular expansion inclines to the iliac shaft at approximately 30° ( fig. 3i ). The specimens are indistinguishable from extant specimens of Pseudophryne guentheri in ilial morphology, but no skeletal material of the other southwestern congener, P. occidentalis , was available for study here. Until comparisons can be made with ilial specimens of P. occidentalis , the Leaena’s Breath Cave specimens are referred to Pseudophryne sp. indet.

Figures

Figure 1. Map of Australia showing modern occurrence records extracted from the Atlas of Living Australia (www.ala.org.au) and location of Leaena’s Breath Cave (black triangle). a) Anura. b) Neobatrachus sudelli. Note that the two most northwestern records may represent N. aquilonius (J. D. Roberts, pers. comm., 27 June 2015). c) Pseudophryne guentheri (light green) and P. occidentalis (dark green). d) Litoria adelaidensis (red), L. cyclorhyncha (purple) and L. moorei (light brown).

Figure 3. Pleistocene frog ilia from Leaena’s Breath Cave (prefix WAM) compared with modern specimens (prefix SAMA). a) WAM 09.3.264. Right ilium of holotype of Litoria lundeliusi sp. nov. from Leaena’s Breath Cave (unit 3). b) WAM 09.3.264. Enlargement of acetabular region of holotype of Litoria lundeliusi sp. nov. c) SAMA R68398. Representative left ilium of Litoria adelaidensis. d) SAMA R68399. Representative right ilium of Litoria rubella sensu stricto. e–h) Representative ilia of Neobatrachus sudelli highlighting extreme divergence in the form of the dorsal prominence. e) WAM 09.3.265. f) WAM 09.3.261. g) WAM 09.3.269. h) WAM 09.3.273. i) Right ilium of Pseudophryne sp. indet.