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Cranial remains of a new species of balbarine kangaroo (Marsupialia: Macropodoidea) from the Oligo-Miocene freshwater limestone deposits of Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northern Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

B. N. Cooke
B. N. Cooke*
Affiliation:
School of Natural Resource Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia, , and Vertebrate Palaeontology Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
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Abstract

A new species, Balbaroo fangaroo, of balbarine kangaroo is described from the freshwater limestone deposits at Riversleigh northern Australia. The type specimens include two partial skulls which reveal hitherto unknown characters of Balbarinae and provide new evidence relevant to the resolution of the phylogenetic affinities of Balbarinae. A number of the newly-revealed characters e.g., squamosal-frontal contact on the walls of the neurocranium, are argued as being plesiomorphic for Macropodoidea.

Hypertrophied upper canines which occur in the paratype, have never previously been recorded in kangaroos and represent an example of evolutionary convergence between these herbivorous marsupials and ungulate eutherians.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , March 2000 , pp. 317 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 2000

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