A scientific collaboration that spanned more than two decades has resulted in the discovery and naming of one of the most complete and preserved fossil skeleton of a new species of kangaroo, dating 14 million years.

Scientists from the Western Australian Museum, University of New South Wales and Queensland Museum recently published the paper that named the new species, Ganguroo robustiter.

WA Museum CEO Alec Coles said this discovery is significant to science for many reasons.

“Ganguroo robustiter is a near complete skeleton, which in itself is a very rare and special find, and because it is almost complete it tells us about the evolution of kangaroos,” Mr Coles said.

WA Museum Mammal Curator and co-author of the paper Dr Kenny Travouillon said the fossil is the size of a wallaby and is probably one of the direct ancestors of all wallabies and kangaroos currently known in Australia.

“An increase in size can be tracked through time, and as this fossil is of an animal which was not a good hopper it suggests that hopping in kangaroos evolved later, when Australia’s landscape become more arid,” Dr Travouillon said.

The findings are a result of fieldwork at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area (RWHA) in northwest of Queensland which began in the 1970s.

“Almost every year since the 70s, Professor Mike Archer from the University of New South Wales led a team of six to 12 Australian and international palaeontologists to the RWHA to recover fossils embedded in limestone,” Dr Travouillon said.

“From the 1990s to 2012 more than 100 specimens of this new species were discovered, making this discovery a true team effort.

“Finding this species’ cranial and dental remains was the missing link we were looking for. These remains were identified as coming from the middle to early late Miocene period, and from there we were able to identify the fossils as the new species of Ganguroo robustiter.”

Dr Travouillon said special thanks and acknowledgement is to be given to Queensland Museum’s Dr Bernard Cooke, lead author of the paper, who has named 15 new species of kangaroo and whose research is very important in understanding how kangaroos evolved.

The publication on Ganguroo robustiter can be viewed at Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology Volume 35 Issue 4, 2015