Sarcophilus
| Sarcophilus | |
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| The Tasmanian Devil is the only living species from Sarcophilus | |
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| Genus: | Sarcophilus F.G. Cuvier, 1837
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| Type species | |
| Sarcophilus laniarius Owen, 1838
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Sarcophilus is a genus of carnivorous marsupial best known for its only living member, the Tasmanian Devil.
There are three species of Sarcophilus. S. laniarius and S. moornaensis are only known from fossils from the Pleistocene. S. laniarius was larger than the contemporary, and only surviving, species S. harrisii, weighing up to 10 kilograms more. The relationship between the three species is unclear; while some have proposed that S. harrisii may be a dwarf version of S. laniarius, others argue that it is a completely different species and that the two may have coexisted during the Pleistocene.
References
- Long, J., Archer, M., Flannery, T. and Hand, S. 2002. Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution. John Hopkins University Press. pp 55. ISBN 0801872235.
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