''Dorcopsoides'' is a genus of extinct species of kangaroo from the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Description

''Dorcopsoides'' was described in 1967 from the well-preserved lower jaw, skull fragments and

occipital The occipital bone () is a cranial dermal bone and the main bone of the occiput (back and lower part of the skull). It is trapezoidal in shape and curved on itself like a shallow dish. The occipital bone lies over the occipital lobes of the cere ...

found in the

Upper Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million years ago) to 5.333 Ma. The ...

Alcoota Fossil Beds __NOTOC__ The Alcoota Fossil Beds are an important paleontological Lagerstätte in the Northern Territory of Australia located on Alcoota Station in the locality of Anmatjere about north-east of Alice Springs in the Central Australia regio ...

north-east of

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. It was part of the Alcoota local fauna, which also included zygomaturine diprotodonts, a type of

mihirung Dromornithidae, known as mihirungs (after Tjapwuring ''Mihirung paringmal'', "giant bird") and informally as thunder birds or demon ducks, were a clade of large, flightless Australian birds of the Oligocene through Pleistocene epochs. All are no ...

(''

Ilbandornis ''Ilbandornis'' was a genus of ostrich-sized dromornithid, a clade known casually as "demon ducks" because they are most closely related to the water fowl clade anseriformes. It was far more lightly built than other members of the family, indicat ...

''), a crocodile (''

Baru ''Baru'', sometimes referred to as the cleaver-headed crocodile, is an extinct genus of Australian mekosuchine crocodilian. Its fossils have been found from various Late Oligocene and Miocene localities from across the Northern Territory and Que ...

'') and the giant thylacine, ''

Thylacinus potens ''Thylacinus potens'' ("powerful pouched animal") was the largest species of the family Thylacinidae, originally known from a single poorly preserved fossil discovered by Michael O. Woodburne in 1967 in a Late Miocene locality near Alice Springs, ...

''. It was about the size of a

gray and black four-eyed opossum The nine species in the genus ''Philander'', commonly known as gray and black four-eyed opossums, are members of the order Didelphimorphia. Mature females have a well-developed marsupium. The tail appears to be hairless except for the proximal ( ...

. The generic name (''Dorcopsoides'') indicates a resemblance to forest wallabies (''

Dorcopsis ''Dorcopsis'' is a genus of marsupial in the family Macropodidae Macropodidae is a Family (biology), family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, Wallaby, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. ...

'') now living in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and neighboring islands.

References

Prehistoric macropods Pliocene marsupials Miocene marsupials Miocene mammals of Australia Pliocene mammals of Australia Prehistoric marsupial genera {{Diprotodont-stub