Yarala is a genus of fossil mammals that resemble contemporary bandicoots. The superfamily Yaraloidea and family Yaralidae were created following the discovery of the type species Yarala burchfieldi in 1995, on the basis that it lacks synapomorphies that unite all other peramelemorphian taxa.[1][2]

Yarala
Temporal range: Oligocene - Miocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Peramelemorphia
Family: Yaralidae
Muirhead, 2000
Genus: Yarala
Muirhead, 1995
Species

A second species was described in 2006, which is suggested to be ancestral to Y. burchfieldi.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ Muirhead, J. & Filan, S.L. (1995). "Yarala burchfieldi, a plesiomorphic bandicoot (marsupialia, peramelemorphia) from Oligo-Miocene deposits of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland". Journal of Paleontology. 69 (1): 127–134. doi:10.1017/S0022336000026986. S2CID 87592897.
  2. ^ Muirhead, J. (2000). "Yaraloidea (marsupialia, peramelemorphia), a new superfamily of marsupial and a description and analysis of the cranium of the Miocene Yarala burchfieldi". Journal of Paleontology. 74 (3): 512–523. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2000)074<0512:YMPANS>2.0.CO;2. S2CID 86208373.
  3. ^ Schwartz, L.R. (2006). "A new species of bandicot from the Oligocene of Northern Australia and implications for correlating Australian Tertiary mammal faunas". Palaeontology. 49 (5): 991–998. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00584.x. S2CID 84073016.