Wakaleo schouteni sounds like one of those animals that should be a myth. In fact, it resembles the legendary Australian drop bear more than just a little. This 50-pound marsupial would have looked something like  a lanky version of a koala with meat-cleaver teeth, just as adept at climbing trees but preferring a diet of flesh to eucalyptus. Fantastic, perhaps, but the bones don't lie.

Paleontologist Anna Gillespie and colleagues named this new species of "marsupial lion" from a nearly-complete skull and additional postcranial bones found in the 26-19 million year old deposits of Australia's Riversleigh World Heritage Area. It's not the only beast of its kind ever known. Its larger, later relative Thylacoleo carnifex is the family's standard bearer. But the announcement of Wakaleo schouteni is a wonderful reminder that Australia's ancient carnivores evolved in their own unique and unexpected ways, carving out their own way to be leopard-like hunters. 

And this isn't just about naming something new. Every new fossil species added to the list of known prehistoric life helps throw others into context. In this case, Gillespie and coauthors explain, the analysis of Wakaleo schouteni revealed that another marsupial lion named half a century ago - Priscileo pitikantensis - should actually be a species of Wakaleo, too. This other Wakaleo species is just about as old, going back to the Late Oligocene, and points to an even earlier origin for the group. This gives paleontologists all the more reason to dig in deeper, scratching away at the evolutionary origin of these marsupial copycats.

Wakaleo
The skull of Wakaleo schouteni. Credit: Gillespie et al 2017

Name: Wakaleo schouteni

Meaning: The established genus Wakaleo means "small lion", and schouteni honors paleoartist Peter Schouten.

Age: Oligocene-Miocene, between 26 and 19 million years ago.

Where in the world?: Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia. 

What sort of organism?: A marsupial mammal belonging to a group called the Thylacoleonidae.

How much of the organism’s is known?: A nearly-complete skull and additional postcranial bones.

References:

Gillespie, A., Archer, M., Hand, S. 2017. A new Oligo-Miocene marsupial lion from Australia and revision of the family Thylacoleonidae. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. doi: 10.1080/14772019.2017.1391885

Previous Paleo Profiles:

The Light-Footed Lizard
The Maoming Cat
Knight’s Egyptian Bat
The La Luna Snake
The Rio do Rasto Tooth
Bob Weir's Otter
Egypt's Canine Beast
The Vastan Mine Tapir
Pangu's Wing
The Dawn Megamouth
The Genga Lizard
The Micro Lion
The Mystery Titanosaur
The Echo Hunter
The Lo Hueco Titan
The Three-Branched Cicada
The Monster of Minden
The Pig-Footed Bandicoot
Hayden's Rattlesnake Demon
The Evasive Ostrich Seer
The Paradoxical Mega Shark
The Tiny Beardogs
The Armored Fish King
North America's Pangolin
The Invisible-Tusked Elephant
The Mud Dragon
The Spike-Toothed Salmon
The Dream Coast Crocodile
Buriol's Robber
Ozimek's Flyer
The Northern Naustoceratopsian
The High Arctic Flyer
The Tomatillo From the End of the World
The Short-Faced Hyena
The Mighty Traveler from Egg Mountain
Keilhau's Ichthyosaur
Mexico's Ancient Horned Face
Mauricio Fernández's Plesiosaur
New Zealand's Giant Dawn Penguin
The Orange Sea Lion
Mongolia's Ginkgo Cousin
The Geni River Frog
Isabel Berry's Dinosaur
The Whale Caiman
The Moab Lizard
Yang Zhongjian's Lizard
The Little Anubis
The Shuangbai Lizard
The Wyvern Dinosaur
The "Need Helmet" Dinosaur
The Jianianhua Dragon
The Liaoning Hunter
The Dalian Lizard
Crompton's Aleodon
Jenkins' Amphibian Serpent From the Chinle
The Large Ancestor Lizard
The Crown Tooth
Currie's Alberta Hunter
The Elephant Bird Mimic
The Crested Thief
The Hiding Hunter
The Horned Lizard
The Silk Bird
The Sieve-Toothed Plesiosaur
The Defenseless Snout
Burian's Lizard
The Small Whaitsiid
The Beautiful Bird
The Fierce Cat
The Older One From Melksham
The King of the Miocene Iberian Giraffes
Miera's Lizard
The Traveling Sloth
The Sand Whale