Etadunna bandicoot tip dated matrices

The oldest fossils referrable to the marsupial order Peramelemorphia
(which includes modern bandicoots and bilbies) dates to the late Oligocene
of Australia. The earliest geologically speaking of these are from the
Etadunna Formation in central Australia. Here we describe additional
peramelemorphian material from the Etadunna Formation, as well as
specimens from the Namba and Wipajiri Formations. The new material fills
gaps in the evolutionary history of the order showing that
peramelemorphians were present in every faunal zones of the Etadunna
Formation, and demonstrating for the first time the presence of
Peramelemorphian in the Namba Formation. We describe three new species of
Bulungu, including the oldest peramelemorphian known to date (from Faunal
Zone A of Etadunna Formation) and a new genus and species of the family
Thylacomyidae (which includes modern bilbies), which is ~10 million years
older than the previous earliest thylacomyid known.  We also
present a phylogenetic analysis that helps clarify the evolutionary
relationships of the new taxa described here.