Paleontologists in Australia discovered the fossilized remains of a new species in the genus kangaroo off Dorcopoids.
The largest forest wall (Dorcopsis Hageni). Image credit: Melvin Toullec / CC by-SA 4.0.
The newly described species belongs to the Dorcopsini tribe, which is represented today by six species of forest wallaby in New Guinea.
However, the group has an unequal fossil record from the Australian continent at the end of the Miocene era.
Two other species of fossil forest walls have been described from Australia to date: Buloloensis dorcopsoids of the first Pliocene in southeast Australia; And Dorcopsoids Fossilis From the end of the Miocene Alcoota Lits of the Waite formation on the continental interior.
The new species, Cowpatensis dorcopsoideswas smaller than his congeners and differs in a combination of states of dental and skeletal character.
“The forest walls of New Guinea are little known to science, with basic information such as the diet and uncertain habitat for most of them,” said Professor Gavin Prideaux at Flinders University.
“The living forest walls are cute and individuals, with slightly sad Whippet type faces.”
“Their strong and curved tails are used as a fifth member during the slow movement, a bit like in gray kangaroos, except that the tail breaks, so only the point even touches the ground.”
The fossils of Cowpatensis dorcopsoides were found on the site of Cowpat Hill at Alcoota station in the northern territory of the North.
“Forest Wallabies probably dispersed in New Guinea in Australia about 12 million years ago and disappeared from Australia for reasons still unknown in the last 5 million years,” added Dr. Isaac Kerr of the University of Flinders.
“Meanwhile, the islands of New Guinea and continental Australia were periodically connected by a” earthly bridge “due to the drop in sea level, rather than separated by the flooded strait of torres as they are today.”
“Thus, the first Australian mammals moved into the tropical forests of New Guinea.”
“When the Strait of Torres again flooded, however, these animal populations disconnected from their Australian relatives, and therefore did not experience dramatic drying which still defines a large part of Australia.”
“”Cowpatensis dorcopsoides bears many characteristics of living forest wallabies, but lived in a very different environment. »»
“His house was dry and brushy, with a widespread trunk and dense wood around streams and ephemeral lakes.”
“This species would have jumped quickly, but only for short periods, going from safer dense vegetation in more open areas to feed on leaves, fruit and fungi.”
The results were published in the AlcheringaAn Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.
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Isaac Ar Kerr and Gavin J. Prideaux. A new kind of fossil kangaroo of the genus Dorcopoids (Marsupialia, Macropodinae) of the local fauna of the Miocene Fire of Miocene, central Australia. Alcheringapublished online on July 30, 2025; DOI: 10.1080/03115518.2025.2521772
