A new fossil kangaroo species of the genus Dorcopsoides (Marsupialia, Macropodinae) from the late Miocene Ongeva Local Fauna, central Australia

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* [[e-mail]], College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia; Gavin J. Prideaux [[e-mail]], College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.