Palaeopotorous

Palaeopotorous priscus is a fossil species of a diprotodont marsupial, known from specimens obtained in central Australia. The animal was similar to the modern species of the family Potoroidae, the potoroos and bettongs.

Palaeopotorous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Potoroidae
Genus: †Palaeopotorous
Species:
†P. priscus
Binomial name
†Palaeopotorous priscus
Flannery and Rich 1986

Taxonomy

The only known species of its genus, Palaeopotorous, which has been allied to the subfamily Potoroinae or as the type of a subfamily, Palaeopotoroinae, in the potoroid family.

Description

The dental evidence of the species indicates it was a similar size to a small to medium 'rat-kangaroos' that were common into the twentieth century.[1]

Since its first discovery, the species has been suspected of representing an early lineage of the macropods. The finds have been placed to the late Oligocene period, for which the fossil record of early macropods is otherwise absent. Palaeopotorous priscus has been proposed to be the earliest known lineage of macropod, sharing the rudiments of features found in the smaller rat-kangaroos and larger kangaroos and wallabies.[2]

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References
  1. Claridge, A.W.; Seebeck, J.H.; Rose, R. (2007). Bettongs, potoroos, and the musky rat-kangaroo. Collingwood, Victoria: CSIRO Pub. ISBN 9780643093416.
  2. Is the fossil rat-kangaroo Palaeopotorous priscus the most basally branching stem macropodiform? den Boer Wendy, Kear Benjamin P. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 2018 38(2). p.e1428196
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