Wanburoo hilarus gen. et sp. nov., a lophodont bulungamayine kangaroo (Marsupialia: Macropodoidea: Bulungamayinae) from the Miocene deposits of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 9 years ago

Abstract - Wanburoo hilarus gen. et sp. nov. is described on the basis of specimens recovered from a number of Riversleigh sites ranging in estimated age from early Middle Miocene to early Late Miocene. The new species is characterized by low-crowned, lophodont molars in which hypolophid morphology clearly indicates bulungamayine affinity.

The relatively close temporal proximity and lophodont molar morphology of the new species invites comparison with the Late Miocene macropodids, Dorcopsoides fossilis and Hadronomas puckridgi. While there is a number of phenetic similarities between the species, many of these appear to be symplesiomorphic. However, a number of apomorphies are suggested as indicating a phylogenetic relationship between the new species and early, non-balbarine macropodids represented by D. fossilis and H. puckridgi. Of these two taxa, the relationship appears stronger with Hadronomas than with Dorcopsoides. Balbarine-like characters present in Dorcopsoides are likely plesiomorphic or the result of convergence. While bulungamayines are herein regarded as more likely than balbarines to be ancestral to macropodids, the possibility of a diphyletic origin for macropodids cannot be dismissed. The suggested relationship between bulungamayines and macropodids casts doubt on the inclusion of Bulungamayinae within Potoroidae.