Dasyurus gracilis Ramsay, 1888a

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 : 307-308

Dasyurus gracilis Ramsay, 1888a

Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (ser. 2) 3(3): 1296. (7 December 1888).

Common name. Spotted-tailed Quoll.

Current name. Dasyurus maculatus gracilis Ramsay, 1888a . Variously treated as a synonym of D. maculatus maculatus ( Kerr, 1792) , or as a subspecies of D. maculatus as by Jackson & Groves (2015), who highlight the need for further clarification of its status. Woolley et al. (2015) did not find genetic support for subspecific status.

Holotype. M.155 by subsequent determination. Male subadult, skull, skin mount ( Figs 9–10 ), collected by E. J. Cairn and R. Grant. Registered February 1888. The original M Register entry gives the locality only as “ Queensland ”, to which is added “Bellenden Ker”, in writing resembling that of Waite.

Condition. Rear of cranium missing including occipital area, hole in left parietal, missing tips of both nasal bones; right dentary missing 1st incisor, left dentary missing condyle, and posterior end of coronoid process. Skin mount missing claw from digit 5 of left manus, otherwise complete and in good condition.

Condition. Skin mount (on a rock platform), fur faded, left ear tip torn, stuffing protruding from near tail base, hole anterior to right ear.

Cranial measurements (mm). M.155: GL, —; NasL, 27.28*; NasB, 7.86; UC1–C1 (alv.), 15.16; APV, 4.86; PAL, 41.99; UPM (alv.), 3.79; UMR (alv.), 18.42; ZB, 41.68; POC, 12.40; BUL, —; MB, —; DL (condyl.), 57.77; LPM (alv.), 4.14; LMR (alv.), 24.08. [* = estimate, nasal tips worn].

Type locality. Atherton Tableland , north Qld, Australia. The AM type specimen index card, handwritten in the early 20th century, states “Shot by Grant while ascending a tree on the tableland. No rocks within miles fide Grant July 1907 ”. Ramsay (1888a) does not specify a collecting locality in his account of this entity but in the opening remarks of his paper states that his new species were obtained on “a trip to the table lands of the Bellenden-Ker Ranges”.

Comments. Although Ramsay does not indicate how many specimens he used to describe gracilis, J. Ogilby (1892) refers to Ramsay’s “unique” specimen. No other specimens of this taxon were found in the M Register from north Qld. The collection date of the putative holotype is not recorded in the register, but Ramsay states that it was obtained during “January last”, which from the publication date of his paper, suggests January 1888, which is also the date written on the old type specimen index card. Tate (1951a) examined the holotype skull, which appears to have been extracted in the 1940s, and reported its subadult status. He mistakenly cited the specimen as M.1551.

Figures

Figure 9. AM M.155, holotype skin mount of Dasyurus gracilis Ramsay, 1888a. (Photography by Sally Cowan).

Figure 10.AM M.155, holotype skull ofDasyurus gracilis Ramsay, 1888a. (Photography by Sally Cowan).