Wakaleo

Wakaleo
Temporal range: Miocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: †Thylacoleonidae
Genus: †Wakaleo
Clemens & Plane, 1974
Species

†W. alcootaensis
†W. oldfieldi
†W. pitikantensis
†W. schouteni
†W. vanderleuri

Wakaleo (indigenous Australian waka, "little", "small", and Latin leo, "lion") was a genus of medium-sized thylacoleonids that lived in Australia in the early to late Miocene. It was approximately 2.5 ft (80 cm) long, or the size of a dog. Although much smaller than its close relative, the marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex), Wakaleo would have been a successful hunter in its time. It had teeth specially designed for cutting and stabbing. The ocelot-sized predator Wakaleo, along with its jaguar-sized relative Thylacoleo, were actually related to the herbivore wombats.[1]

Species

  • Wakaleo alcootaensis was found in the Miocene Waite Formation in the Northern Territory in 1974. It was slightly larger than the other two species.
  • Wakaleo oldfieldi was found by a group of scientists working in the Miocene Wipijiri Formation in southern Australia in 1971. They found a nearly complete left dentry which included a few well-preserved teeth.
  • Wakaleo vanderleuri was first found by some field workers in 1967 in the Miocene Camfield Beds in the Northern Territory. Many more specimens have been found since then.

References

  1. ↑ The Book of Life. Stephen Jay Gould, John Barber, Peter Andrews. Norton, W.W.& Company Inc. 2001. ISBN 0-393-32156-8
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