2025/07/30 by Isaac A. R. Kerr, Gavin J. Prideaux · 1 voice · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Bat Biology and Ecology Studies #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/03115518.2025.2521772
openalex publication_date 2025/07/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/17
The kangaroo tribe Dorcopsini is represented today by six species of New Guinean forest-wallaby. However, the group has a patchy fossil record beginning on the Australian mainland in the upper Miocene. Two species of fossil dorcopsin have been described from Australia to date one from the lower Pliocene of southeastern Australia; and another from the upper Miocene Alcoota beds of the Waite Formation in the continental interior. Here we describe a third Australian species from the Ongeva deposit, which stratigraphically overlies the Alcoota beds. Dorcopsoides cowpatensis sp. nov. is smaller than its congeners, Dorcopsoides fossilis and Dorcopsoides buloloensis, and differs in a combination of dental and postcranial character states. While its molars are very similar to other dorcopsins, the short, straight premolar resembles that of more derived macropodines. Its hindlimbs appear to have been ‘lower geared’ than those of D. fossilis, and in overall functional morphology it is similar to species of Dorcopsis and to the Quokka, Setonix brachyurus. We infer that D. cowpatensis was adapted to a relatively closed habitat while still being capable of a powerful bipedal hop.Isaac A. R. Kerr* [[email protected]], College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia; Gavin J. Prideaux [[email protected]], College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.