Kingdom Animalia Infraclass Marsupialia Family Zygomaturidae Scientific name Hulitherium tomasetti Rank Genus | Class Mammalia Suborder Vombatiformes Species H. tomasetti Phylum Chordata Order Diprotodontia | |
 | ||
Similar Silvabestius, Kolopsis, Zygomaturus, Pyramios, Diprotodontia | ||
Hulitherium tomasetti (meaning "Huli beast", after the Huli people) is an extinct zygomaturid marsupial from New Guinea during the Pleistocene. The species name honours Bernard Tomasetti who brought the fossils to the attention of experts.
Contents
Fossils
Hulitherium was described on the basis of a nearly complete skull, several detached teeth, a fragment of lower jaw, atlas and cervical vertebrae, almost complete humerus and fragmentary bones of the hind limb. The skeleton suggests that the limbs were highly mobile relative to the other diprotodontids and that it was a browser.
Biology
Hulitherium lived in montane rain forests and may have fed on bamboo. perhaps a marsupial analogue of the giant panda. It was one of New Guinea's largest mammals with the height of 1 m (3 ft) and was close to 2 m (6 ft) long. And the estimated weight of 75-200 kilograms. Flannery and Plane (1986) suggested that because little had changed since the Late Pleistocene, humans may have been the major factor that led to its extinction.
Other relatives
Murray (1992) concluded that Hulitherium is most closely related to the New Guinean Maokopia, and that these two together are most closely related to Kolopsis rotundus also from new Guinea. Black and Mackness(1999) suggested that the Hulitherium clade is more closely related to the clade comprising Zygomaturus plus another undescribed genus from Australia, than it is to Kolopsis.