Macropus jukesii Miklouho-Maclay, 1885a

Parnaby, Harry E., Ingleby, Sandy & Divljan, Anja, 2017, Type Specimens of Non-fossil Mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney, Records of the Australian Museum 69 (5), pp. 277-420 : 337

Macropus jukesii Miklouho-Maclay, 1885a

Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (ser. 1) 9(4): 891, pl. 39, figs 1–5. (4 March 1885)

Common name. Dusky Pademelon.

Current name. Thylogale brunii ( Schreber, 1778) , following Flannery (1992).

? Syntype. M.2033, female, study skin without skull; listed as “?New Guinea ”, received as alcohol skin from Macleay Museum Committee in 1907 and registered 4 February 1909 .

Condition. Study skin complete and in reasonable condition, prominent pouch, ear tips frayed.

Type locality. Port Moresby, Central Province , Papua New Guinea; “From the hills near Anuabada (Port Moresby)” Miklouho-Maclay (1885a: 891) .

Comments. Stanbury (1969) cites MMUS 380 in the Macleay Museum as the “ holotype ” of M. jukesii and the skin, and the skull associated with the skin at that time, was identified as Thylogale brunii by Flannery (1992). However, Miklouho-Maclay’s text is ambiguous and it is unclear if he had one or two specimens. A recent assessment of MMUS material (Parnaby et al. unpublished) has concluded that his description was based on at least two specimens —a female skin mount (skull in situ) and a skin and skull preserved in “brine” and possibly salt affected, for which he did not indicate the sex. He comments that the latter specimen enabled him to examine skull and dental features not visible in the skin mount. Prior to 2016, the complete skull figured in the original account has been incorrectly associated with the female skin mount MMUS M380, the skull of which was extracted in 1960 but its association with the skin mount had remained confused. We suspect that M.2033 could be the second syntype of Miklouho-Maclay’s species, the skull of which is illustrated in the original account. Our reasoning is three fold. First, there are no candidates for the second syntype amongst the remaining skins in the MMUS (Parnaby et al. unpublished). Second, M.2033 was sent to the AM in a batch of alcohol preserved wallaby skins, probably in 1907. The M Register entry for the Dorcopsis and Thylogales from that consignment remarked “includes co-types!” but did not indicate which specimens were thought to be types. Third, while three of the ten wallaby skins sent to the AM in 1907 were Thylogales, two are unlikely to be the second jukesii syntype because they contained skulls whereas the missing syntype is anticipated to be a skin only, the skull being in the MMUS. The available evidence thus supports M.2033 as being a likely candidate for Miklouho-Maclay’s second skin of M. jukesii , the skull of which is illustrated in his original account. Head length of the stuffed study skin M.2033 is c. 10.5 cm, which is consistent with the skull length of 9.4 cm taken from the skull illustrated in Miklouho-Maclay’s original account. Molecular methods could be used to test the association of the skull and skins.

Despite these arguments, we remain cautious regarding the status of M.2033 because there is one other potential and realistic scenario: that M.2033 was received by Macleay after 1884, probably from Goldie, and after Miklouho-Maclay had prepared his description of M. jukesii .