Fossils found in Central Australia answer key kangaroo and wallaby questions, researchers say
A fossil find in the heart of the Territory is helping answer key questions around some of the nation’s most iconic animals, according to a group of researchers.
Fossils found in the heart of the Territory are helping answer key questions around the evolution of one of the nation’s most iconic animals, researchers behind the find say.
Questions around how kangaroos and wallabies became the nation’s prolific marsupial are now closer to being answered thanks to the find at Alcoota fossil field, south of Alice Springs, by a group of Flinders University researchers.
The fossil field, roughly 177km from the Red Centre capital, are home to the extinct Dorcopsoides fossils – the only place in Australia fossils from the animal can be found.
“While first described in 1967 from some partial jaws, teeth and foot bones, it has since received minimal attention, despite the accumulation of many more specimens,” Flinders University lead investigator Dr Isaac Kerr said.
Dr Kerr is one of the authors behind a newly published article on the link between the fossils and modern-day kangaroos and wallabies, shedding light on the species’ evolution.
“Although D. fossils is generally similar to living forest-wallabies, it has certain features seen in, for example, grey kangaroos, that imply some ability to hop powerfully and efficiently,” he said.
“These features indicate the species was adapted in part to moving through open habitats, able to move efficiently to find food in the drying landscape.”
The D. fossils lived during the late Miocene era – roughly seven million years ago, and are part of the group known as Dorcopsini, or Forrest wallabies.
The dorcopsins used to roam Australia five million years ago, but are now found only in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea.
But while they roamed the country, Australia was becoming more arid, with the recently unearthed hind limb fossils helping researchers understand how wallabies and kangaroos evolved to roam the interior of the country.
“For the first time we have analysed all their fossilised limb bones and compared them with limbs of living (extant) species, to shed light on kangaroo evolution,” Dr Kerr said.
The findings from the fossils have been published in the Royal Society of Open Science journal, with co-author Gavin Prideaux adding the find “bolsters evidence from more recent fossils and from genetic analyses about the timing and nature of the rise of macropodines”.
Originally published as Fossils found in Central Australia answer key kangaroo and wallaby questions, researchers say
