The newly-described types comes from the people Dorcopsini, which is represented today by 6 types of New Guinean forest-wallaby.

The group has an irregular fossil record starting on the Australian mainland in the Late Miocene date.

2 other types of fossil forest-wallabies have actually been explained from Australia to date: Dorcopsoides buloloensis from the Early Pliocene of southeastern Australia; and Dorcopsoides fossilis from the Late Miocene Alcoota beds of the Waite Formation in the continental interior.

The brand-new types, Dorcopsoides cowpatensiswas smaller sized than its congeners and varied in a mix of oral and skeletal character states.

“The forest-wallabies of New Guinea are unknown to science, with fundamental info like diet plan and environment unpredictable for the majority of them,” stated Flinders University’s Professor Gavin Prideaux.

“Living forest-wallabies are adorable and strange, with somewhat unfortunate, whippet-like faces.”

“Their strong, curved tails are utilized like a 5th limb throughout sluggish motion, just like in grey kangaroos, other than that the tail arches so just the extremely suggestion touches the ground.”

The fossils of Dorcopsoides cowpatensis were discovered at the area of Cowpat Hill on Alcoota Station in the southern Northern Territory.

“Forest-wallabies most likely distributed into New Guinea from Australia around 12 million years earlier and disappeared from Australia for factors yet unidentified at some point over the previous 5 million years,” included Flinders University’s Dr. Isaac Kerr.

“During that time, the islands of New Guinea and mainland Australia were occasionally linked by a ‘land-bridge’ due to lower water level, instead of separated by the flooded Torres Strait as they are today.”

“So, early Australian mammals moved into the rain forests of New Guinea.”

“When the Torres Strait flooded once again, nevertheless, these populations of animals ended up being detached from their Australian family members, therefore didn’t experience the remarkable drying-out that still specifies much of Australia.”

Dorcopsoides cowpatensis bears a number of the functions of the living forest-wallabies, however resided in an extremely various environment.”

“Its home was dry, scrubby bush, with prevalent mallee and some denser forest around ephemeral creeks and lakes.”

“This types is believed to have actually hopped promptly, however just for brief durations, moving from much safer thick plants into more open locations to eat leaves, fruits and fungis.”

The findings were released in the Alcheringaan Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.

_____

Isaac A. R. Kerr & & Gavin J. Prideaux. A brand-new fossil kangaroo types of the genus Dorcopsoides (Marsupialia, Macropodinae) from the Late Miocene Ongeva Local Fauna, main Australia. Alcheringareleased online July 30, 2025; doi: 10.1080/ 03115518.2025.2521772