The purple-necked rock-wallaby (''Petrogale purpureicollis'') is a species of

rock-wallaby The rock-wallabies are the wallabies of the genus ''Petrogale''. Taxonomy The genus was established in 1837 by John Edward Gray in a revision of material at the British Museum of Natural History. Gray nominated his earlier description of ''Ka ...

first described in 1924 by Albert Sherbourne Le Souef, then director of the

Taronga Zoo Taronga Zoo is a zoo located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in the suburb of Mosman, on the shores of Sydney Harbour. The opening hours are between 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Taronga is an Aboriginal word meaning 'beautiful water view'. It ...

in Sydney, Australia, who noted a purple colouration around the neck and cranial features that distinguish it from other rock-wallaby species. The purple colouration was thought by some sceptical scientists to be due to the animal rubbing against a dye, but the animal does in fact secrete a purple pigment. The pigment is known to wash off in the rain and fade away after death, causing some possible confusion with other rock-wallaby species. The species has undergone taxonomic upheaval for decades and has variously been classified as an unadorned rock-wallaby,

brush-tailed rock-wallaby The brush-tailed rock-wallaby or small-eared rock-wallaby (''Petrogale penicillata'') is a kind of wallaby, one of several rock-wallabies in the genus '' Petrogale''. It inhabits rock piles and cliff lines along the Great Dividing Range from ab ...

, and black-flanked rock-wallaby. Le Souef and others have asserted that it was a new species, and this has been affirmed by a 2001 paper in the Australian Journal of Zoology.

References

External links

Entry into the Australian Journal of Zoology

This page has an image. Mammals of Queensland Macropods Marsupials of Australia Mammals described in 1924 {{Diprotodont-stub