Borungaboodie hatcheri gen. et sp. nov., a very large bettong (Marsupialia: Macropodoidea) from the Pleistocene of southwestern Australia

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 1 decade ago

Abstract: Borungaboodie hatcheri gen. et sp. nov., a very large potoroine kangaroo, is described from a dentary collected from a Pleistocene deposit in a cave near Witchcliffe in southwestern Australia. It is clearly distinguished from all other potoroines on the basis of several unique morphological features of the dentary and dentition, as well as its larger size. Borugaboodie may represent the least derived member of a lineage containing Caloprymnus, Milliyowi and Aepyprymnus. The dentary of B. hatcheri seems to have been capable of generating proportionally larger bite forces than modern bettongs, suggesting a more resistant diet. Its larger body size may also have facilitated a higher degree of opportunistic omnivory than in any modern potoroine. While its ancestral stock may well have inhabited the Miocene wet forest of the southwest, B. hatcheri itself was probably adapted to a sclerophyll habitat.