A new late Pleistocene diprotodontid (Marsupialia) from Pureni, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea

A new zygomaturine diprotodontid, Hulith erium tomasellii gen. et sp. nov., from 38 000-year-old swamp sediments at Pureni, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea is the largest mammal yet known from the Quaternary of New Guinea. Possibly the sister taxon to species of Zygomaturus, the new genus is represented by a partial skull and parts of the postcranial skeleton. Estimated to have weighed 75-200 kg, H. tomasettii was probably a browser. Its hindlimb morphology suggests that it had a greater joint mobility than is known in any other diprotodontid, and this in turn hints that it was probably not graviportal.