Quinkana
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Quinkana Temporal range: Late Oligocene–Late Pleistocene |
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| Life restoration of Quinkana fortirostrum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Crocodilia |
| Family: | Crocodylidae |
| Subfamily: | †Mekosuchinae |
| Genus: |
†Quinkana Molnar, 1981 |
| Species | |
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Quinkana is an extinct genus of mekosuchine crocodylians that lived in Australia from about 24 million to about 40,000 years ago. By the , Quinkana had become one of the top terrestrial predators of Australia, possessing long legs and ziphodont teeth (lateromedially compressed, recurved, and serrated). Quinkana comes from the "Quinkans", a legendary folk from Aboriginal myths.
The species within Quinkana include: the type species Q. fortirostrum from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Queensland,Q. babarra from the Early Pliocene of Queensland,Q. timara from the Middle Miocene of the Northern Territory, and Q. meboldi from the Late Oligocene of Queensland.
The older species (Q. meboldi and Q. timara) were small in size, about 3 m (10 ft), compared to the large species which evolved. Quinkana fortirostrum has been estimated to have reached 6 m (20 ft) in length, making it at the time one of Australia's largest predators, second only to the giant monitor lizard, megalania.
Quinkana is a genus within the subfamily Mekosuchinae. Other genera included in this family are: Australosuchus, Baru, Kambara, Mekosuchus, Pallimnarchus, and Trilophosuchus.
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