Wakaleo

Taxobox
name = Wakaleo
fossil_range = Miocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
infraclassis = Marsupialia
ordo = Diprotodontia
familia = †Thylacoleonidae
genus = †"Wakaleo"
genus_authority = Clemens & Plane, 1974
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = †"W. alcootaensis"
†"W. oldfieldi"
†"W. vanderleuri"

"Wakaleo" (indigenous Australian "waka", "little", "small", and Latin "leo", "lion"), was a genus of medium-sized thylacoleonids that lived in Australia in the early to late Miocene. It was approximately 2.5 ft (80 cm) long, or the size of a dog. Although much smaller than its close relative, the Marsupial Lion "(Thylacoleo carnifex)", "Wakaleo" would have been a successful hunter in its time. It had teeth specially designed for cutting and stabbing.

pecies

*"Wakaleo alcootaensis" was found in the Miocene Waite Formation in the Northern Territory in 1974. It was slightly larger than the other two species.
*"Wakaleo oldfieldi" was found by a group of scientists working in the Miocene Wipijiri Formation in southern Australia in 1971. They found a nearly complete left dentry which included a few well-preserved teeth.
*"Wakaleo vanderleuri" was first found by some field workers in 1967 in the Miocene Camfield Beds in the Northern Territory. Many more specimens have been found since then.

External links

* [http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacoleo/species/GS_tertiary.htm Tertiary Genera of Thylacoleonidae]
* [http://www.lostkingdoms.com/facts/factsheet34.htm Australia's Lost Kingdoms]
* [http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/users/haaramo/Metazoa/Deuterostoma/Chordata/Synapsida/Metatheria/Notometatheria/Diprotodontia/diprotodontia.htm Mikko's Phylogeny Archive]