Palorchestidae is an extinct family of
diprotodont marsupial
Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in ...
s whose members are sometimes referred to as marsupial tapirs due to their superficial similarity to true
tapir
Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inh ...
s.
Mikko's Phylogeny Archive
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Genera
The family consists of the following four genera:
* ''Propalorchestes
''Propalorchestes'' is a fossil genus of Diprotodontidae, mammals that existed in Australia.
Overview
The type species is ''Propalorchestes novaculacephalus''. The genus is probably ancestral to ''Palorchestes'' and resembles '' Ngapakaldia'', a ...
'' (Murray, 1986)
* ''Ngapakaldia
''Ngapakaldia'' is an extinct genus of diprotodontid marsupials, related to the modern koala and wombat. Around the size of a sheep, it was a ground-dwelling herbivore that lived around the vegetated shores of lakes in Central Australia during t ...
'' (Stirton, 1967)
* ''Palorchestes
''Palorchestes'' ("ancient leaper or dancer") is an extinct genus of terrestrial, herbivorous marsupials of the family Palorchestidae. The genus was endemic to Australia, living from the Miocene through to the Pleistocene epochs.
Taxonomy
Th ...
'' (Owen, 1873)
* '' Pitikantia dailyi'' (Stirton, 1967)
References
External links
*
Prehistoric vombatiforms
Prehistoric mammals of Australia
Miocene marsupials
Pliocene marsupials
Pleistocene marsupials
Clawed herbivores
Chattian first appearances
Pleistocene extinctions
Prehistoric mammal families
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