e87ebdc5-994b-45b9-b816-3fe160434ad1 urn:uuid eng UTF-8 nonGeographicDataset nonGeographicDataset 2025-10-16T06:59:54 creation ISO 19115 2016 Tertiary Diprotodontidae from Australia and New Guinea e87ebdc5-994b-45b9-b816-3fe160434ad1 Vertebrate remains from Australia were first studied over a century ago by Sir Richard Owen; and thereafter systematic work was carried on only sporadically, until in 1953 the late Professor R. A. Stirton of the University of California at Berkeley came to South Australia and started an intensive field and laboratory study of the vertebrate faunas of that State. He and his co-workers have continued the study, extending it into the Northern Territory as a consequence of finds by geologists of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, of which the Alcoota fauna is perhaps the richest so far. Professor Stirton also paid a visit to New Guinea to inspect the finds in the Watut Valley, first discovered by N. H. Fisher in 1935 when he was overnment Geologist in the Territory, and extended recently by M. D. Plane of the Bureau of Mineral Resources. As a result of this visit, Stirton and the Bureau made arrangements for Plane to study the fauna at Berkeley. Stirton and his co-workers R. H. Tedford, M. O. Woodburne, and Plane have introduced a new rigour into the study of vertebrate palaeontology in Australia, with which the Bureau is happy to be associated. Geologically, fossil mammals are of great importance because they provide a cluesometimes the only clue-to the Cainoloic history of Australia. This volume records work on an extinct group of marsupials which, as the final paper in the collection shows, forms an evolutionary series that can be applied directly to the dating of Australian Tertiary rocks. AU Bulletin Earth Sciences GA Publication PG Published_External Download the Bulletin (pdf) documentDigital Download the Bulletin (pdf) PDF Unnamed resource documentDigital HTML