''Maokopia'' is an extinct genus of

Zygomaturinae The Zygomaturinae are an extinct subfamily of marsupials Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common t ...

from the

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch within ...

Irian Jaya New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. It is known from a partial skull and was a comparatively small species of diprotodontid, weighing 100 kg. Murray (1992) suggested that it was most closely related to '' Hulitherium''. The teeth indicate a diet of hard

ferns A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

and

grasses Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

that still grow in the alpine meadows of the area (Long ''et al''., 2002).

References

* Long, J., Archer, M., Flannery, T., & Hand, S. (2002) ''Prehistoric mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One hundred million years of evolution''. University of New South Wales Press (pg. * Murray, Peter F. (1992) The smallest New Guinea zygomaturines derived dwarfs or relict plesiomorphs? nline ''Beagle: Records of the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory'', Vol. 9, Dec 1992: 89-110 http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=728469939268812;res=IELHSS bstract Prehistoric marsupial genera Prehistoric vombatiforms Prehistoric vertebrates of Oceania {{paleo-marsupial-stub