''Cookeroo'' is a genus of extinct kangaroos from the Late

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but ...

and Early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

found in fossil deposits from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, in Australia. The genus includes two species, ''C. bulwidarri'' and ''C. hortusensis''.

Taxonomy

The genus was erected to describe two new fossil species of early

Macropodidae Macropodidae is a family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. These genera are allied to the suborder Macropodiformes, containing other macropods, and ...

by researchers, both of which were discovered at Riversleigh and published in 2016. The name of the genus honours the contribution of Bernard Cooke to the study of early marsupials and the evolutionary history of the modern kangaroos and wallabies. The specific epithets of the two known species are named for the sites where they were discovered, ''bulwidarri'' adopts a word from the Wanyi language, meaning "white", in reference to the White Hunter site, ''hortusensis'' is derived from the Latin for garden, the type locality being Neville's Garden site.

Description

The species are equivalent in size to the smaller wallabies of Australia. Unlike modern macropods, the animals moved on four legs, rather than hopping, in the dense rainforest that dominated the Riversleigh area in the early Miocene. The earliest species, ''Cookeroo bulwidarri'', is dated to around 23 million years, and ''C. hortusensis'' to period several million years later. The genus is to have occupied an area that was also inhabited by the balbarids, a family known as fanged kangaroos, which is thought to have become extinct as the climate changed and the rainforest gave way to a more open woodland environment.

References

Prehistoric macropods Prehistoric marsupial genera Miocene mammals of Australia Oligocene mammals of Australia Riversleigh fauna Fossil taxa described in 2016 {{paleo-marsupial-stub