Biochemical and morphological observations on the wallaroos (Macropodidae: Marsupialia) with a suggested new taxonomy

Abstract

Two discriminant functions were designed using skull measurements, one to discriminate Antilopine wallaroos (antilopinus form) and Euros (erubescens form) and one to discriminate Euros and Black wallaroos (bernardus form). These three forms separated into different areas of a scatter‐gram using the two discriminant functions as axes. Skull data from wallaroos not attributable to these forms fitted into the erubescens portion of the scattergram.Northern wallaroos (alligatoris form), which were indistinguishable from wallaroos from southern Australia on skull data, are sympatric with Antilopine and Black wallaroos in Arnhem Land. Here Antilopine and Northern wallaroos had different gene frequencies for three of the four blood proteins studied; Northern wallaroos being most like Euros and wallaroos elsewhere. The Black wallaroo, which is confined to Arnhem Land and is morphologically quite distinctive, had a different haemoglobin type to that of all other animals studied.On the basis of the morphological and biochemical data presented, the wallaroos can be divided into three species—Macropus (Osphranter) antilopinus (Gould, 1842), the Antilopine wallaroo; Macropus (Osphranter) bernardus Rothschild, 1904, the Black wallaroo and Macropus (Osphranter) robustus Gould, 1841. M. robustus is divisible into four subspecies—M. robustus robustus the Eastern wallaroo; M. r. erubescens, the Euro; M. r. woodwardi, the Northern wallaroo and M. r. isabellinus, the Barrow Island wallaroo.