''Borungaboodie'' is an extinct genus of

potoroo Potoroo is a common name for species of ''Potorous'', a genus of smaller marsupials. They are allied to the Macropodiformes, the suborder of kangaroo, wallaby, and other rat-kangaroo genera. All three extant species are threatened by ecological c ...

that lived in

Southwest Australia Southwest Australia is a biogeographic region in Western Australia. It includes the Mediterranean-climate area of southwestern Australia, which is home to a diverse and distinctive flora and fauna. The region is also known as the Southwest Aus ...

during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

. The genus is represented by a single species known as ''Borungaboodie hatcheri'', or more informally, the giant potoroo.

Discovery and naming

Remains of ''Borungaboodie'' were found in Tight Entrance Cave in southwestern Australia. While the cave was explored since the 1970s, it wasn't until 1991 that Lindsay Hatcher and his team at the Western Australian Speleological Group (WASG) discovered that the cave contains fossils of extinct species. The first fossils of ''Borungaboodie'' were subsequently discovered in 1996. The name ''Borungaboodie'' is derived from the

Nyoongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

''borunga'', meaning "very big", and ''boodie'' the word for the living

bettong Bettongs, species of the genus ''Bettongia'', are potoroine marsupials once common in Australia. They are important ecosystem engineers displaced during the colonisation of the continent, and are vulnerable to threatening factors such as altere ...

. The specific name honors Hatcher.

Description

''Borungaboodie'' was significantly larger than any living potoroo, reaching a size comparable to that of a

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the womb ...

. Its lower jaw measured 30 percent greater than the living rofous bettong, and it was estimated to weigh almost . It also had very robust teeth and jaws. The impressive dentary features suggest that ''Borungaboodie'' was capable of generating a much higher bite force than its smaller relatives, and large size also suggests a possibly more omnivorous diet.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q49114722, from2=Q25420330 Prehistoric macropods Pleistocene mammals of Australia Pleistocene marsupials Pleistocene extinctions