Abstract
New records of the Oligo–Miocene mekosuchine crocodylian, Baru, from Queensland and the Northern Territory are described. Baru wickeni and Baru darrowi are accepted as valid species in the genus and their diagnoses are revised. Both species are present in Queensland and the Northern Territory but are restricted in time, with B. wickeni known from the late Oligocene and B. darrowi from the middle Miocene. The broad geographic distributions and restricted time spans of these species indicate that this genus is useful for biochronology. The record of B. wickeni from the Pwerte Marnte Marnte Local Fauna in the Northern Territory establishes that the species inhabited the north-western margin of the Lake Eyre Basin (LEB) drainage system. More southerly Oligo–Miocene sites in the LEB contain only one crocodylian species, Australosuchus clarkae. The Pwerte Marnte Marnte occurrence of B. wickeni indicates that the separation of Baru and Australosuchus did not correspond with the boundaries of drainage basins and that palaeolatitude was a more likely segregating factor.
Highlights
The Cenozoic of Australia hosted an endemic radiation of crocodylians known as the Mekosuchinae (Willis, 1997a)
Mekosuchine fossils are known from the Eocene through to the Holocene (Willis, Molnar & Scanlon, 1993; Mead et al, 2002) but it was in the late Oligocene and early Miocene that the clade radiated to produce a variety of ecomorphological types including ziphodonts, short-faced dwarves and platyrostral aquatic generalists (Molnar, 1981; Willis & Molnar, 1991; Willis, 1993, 1997b)
The holotype specimen consists of a large rostrum (Fig. 1b) from the Bullock Creek Local Fauna of the Northern Territory, while less complete specimens from Riversleigh Station ( Riversleigh World Heritage Area [WHA]) of northwestern Queensland were designated as paratypes of the same species
Summary
New records of the Oligo-Miocene mekosuchine crocodylian, Baru, from Queensland and the Northern Territory are described. B. wickeni and B. darrowi are accepted as valid species in the genus and their diagnoses are revised. Both species are present in Queensland and the Northern Territory but are restricted in time, with B. wickeni known from the late Oligocene and B. darrowi from the middle Miocene. The record of B. wickeni from the Pwerte Marnte Marnte Local Fauna in the Northern Territory establishes that the species inhabited the north-western margin of the Lake Eyre Basin drainage system. More southerly Oligo-Miocene sites in the Lake Eyre Basin contain only one crocodylian species, Australosuchus clarkae. The Pwerte Marnte Marnte occurrence of B. wickeni indicates that the separation of Baru and Australosuchus did not correspond with the boundaries of drainage basins and that palaeolatitude was a more likely segregating factor
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