Barinya

Taxobox
name = "Barinya"
fossil_range= early - middle Miocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
infraclassis = Marsupialia
ordo = Dasyuromorphia
familia = Dasyuridae
subfamilia = "Barinyainae"
subfamilia_authority = Wroe, 1999
genus = "Barinya"
genus_authority = Wroe, 1999
species = "B. wangala"
binomial = "Barinya wangala"
binomial_authority = Wroe, 1999

"Barinya" is a fossil genus from the marsupial family Dasyuridae, which contains the oldest known undoubted dasyurid. [Long, J., Archer, M., Flannery, T. and Hand, S. 2002. "Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution". John Hopkins University Press. pp 51. ISBN 0801872235.]

The principal difference between "Barinya" and more recent dasyurids are in the dentition and skull morphology; with "Barinya" displaying more primitive features. There is one described fossil and at least one that remains to be described. This genus has only been found at Riversleigh in Queensland where it is quite common in deposits from the Oligo-Miocene. [Wroe, S. 1999. The geologically oldest dasyurid, from the Miocene of Riversleigh, north-west Queensland. "Paleontology". 42:501-527]

References