''Wakaleo oldfieldi'' is an extinct species of marsupial lions of the genus ''

Wakaleo ''Wakaleo'' (indigenous Australian ''waka'', "little", "small", and Latin ''leo'', "lion") was a genus of medium-sized thylacoleonids that lived in Australia in the Late Oligocene and Miocene Epochs. Although much smaller than its close relativ ...

'', found in

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), 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 mea ...

deposits of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It had three unfused molar teeth instead of two fused molars as is the case with the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological 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 finally confirmed in ...

Thylacoleo carnifex ''Thylacoleo'' ("pouch lion") is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the late Pleistocene (2 million to 46 thousand years ago). Some of these marsupial lions were the largest mammalian pred ...

''. As with ''

'', this species is presumed to have used its

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. T ...

ry (upper) teeth to hold its food and sharpen the

mandibular In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

teeth, the latter were also used in slicing and stabbing during eating. The premolars also had a crescent-shaped circumference for slicing.

Taxonomy

A description of the species was published in 1974. It is a species of ''

'', marsupial carnivores also found at other fossil sites in Australia.

References

External links

Mikko's Phylogeny ArchiveInformation fromCSIRO
Miocene mammals of Australia Miocene marsupials Wakaleo Fossil taxa described in 1974 Taxa named by William A. Clemens Jr. {{paleo-marsupial-stub