Morelia riversleighensis (Smith & Plane, 1985)

Schleip, Wulf D. & O'Shea, Mark, 2010, Annotated checklist of the recent and extinct pythons (Serpentes, Pythonidae), with notes on nomenclature, taxonomy, and distribution, ZooKeys 66, pp. 29-80 : 46

Morelia riversleighensis (Smith & Plane, 1985) [extinct species]

Synonyms:

Montypythonoides riversleighensis - Smith and Plane 1985

Morelia spilota ( Lacépède) - Kluge 1993

Morelia antiqua Smith & Plane, 1985 - Scanlon 2001

Morelia riversleighensis - Scanlon, 2001

Holotype:

QM F 12926 (=AR4058), incomplete right maxilla.

Type locality:

Henk’s Hollow Local Fauna, Tertiary System C, approximately 3.6 km southwest of Tedford’s (1967) Site B, Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, Australia. Late Oligocene - early middle Miocene ( Scanlon 2001).

Remarks:

Smith and Plane (1985) described the two extinct species riversleighensis and antiquus from Australia. Kluge (1993) synonymized antiqua (name amended for gender by Scanlon 1992) with olivaceus Gray due to the lack of auta pomorphies and great overall similarity and riversleighensis with spilota Lacépède. Scanlon (2001) synonymized antiqua with riversleighensis.