''Yarala'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of fossil mammals that resemble contemporary

bandicoot Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipela ...

s. The superfamily Yaraloidea and family Yaralidae were created following the discovery of the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

''Yarala burchfieldi'' in 1995, on the basis that it lacks

synapomorphies In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to ...

that unite all other

peramelemorphia The order Peramelemorphia includes the bandicoots and bilbies. All members of the order are endemic to Australia-New Guinea and most have the characteristic bandicoot shape: a plump, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, very ...

n taxa. A second species was described in 2006, which is suggested to be ancestral to ''Y. burchfieldi''.

References

Peramelemorphs Oligocene mammals of Australia Miocene mammals of Australia Oligocene marsupials Miocene marsupials Riversleigh fauna Oligocene genus first appearances Miocene genus extinctions Fossil taxa described in 2000 Prehistoric marsupial genera {{paleo-marsupial-stub