''Maokopia'' is an extinct genus of

Zygomaturinae The Zygomaturinae are an extinct subfamily of marsupials. The phylogeny and taxonomy of this clade is poorly understood and problematic. Zygomaturines are currently thought to be a subfamily within Diprotodontidae The Diprotodontidae are an ...

from the Late Pleistocene of

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 ''Hulitherium tomasetti'' (meaning "Huli beast", after the Huli people) is an extinct zygomaturine marsupial from New Guinea during the Pleistocene. The species name honours Berard Tomasetti, a Catholic priest in Papua New Guinea, who brought t ...

''. 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 th ...

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 ...

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