Onychogalea unguifera

The northern or sandy nail-tail wallaby is a species of macropod found across northern Australia on arid and sparsely wooded plains. The largest species of the genus Onychogalea, it is a solitary and nocturnal herbivorous browser that selects its food from a wide variety of grasses and succulent plant material. Distinguished by a slender and long-limbed form that resembles the typical and well known kangaroos, although their standing height is shorter, around half of one metre, and their weight is less than nine kilograms. As with some medium to large kangaroo species, such as Osphranter rufus, they have an unusual pentapedal motion at slow speeds by stiffening the tail for a fifth limb. When fleeing a disturbance, they hop rapidly with the tail curled back and repeatedly utter the sound "wuluhwuluh". Their exceptionally long tail has a broad fingernail-like protuberance beneath a dark crest of hair at its end, a peculiarity of the genus that is much broader than the other species. The name unguifera, meaning claw, is a reference to this extraordinary attribute, the purpose of which is unknown.

Onychogalea unguifera

Nrg800 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
northern nail-tail wallabyPBDB
Sits inside
OnychogaleaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Macropodidae
Life habit
saltatorialPBDB, for Onychogalea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At least 2.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 2 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 2 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.58 Mya – 129 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

2 occurrences of Onychogalea unguifera on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Onychogalea unguifera and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Onychogalea unguifera and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

14 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Onychogalea unguifera, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Onychogalea unguifera

Credit
Nrg800
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Onychogalea unguifera · SAMA:mammalogy:M219

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itOnychogalea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gould 1841)