A specialised thylacinid , Thylacinus macknessi, (Marsupialia: Thylacinidae) from Miocene deposits of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland.

Abstract

Thylacinus macknessi is described from Miocene sediments of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland. Comparisons with other thylacinids and dasyurids reveal it to be a new species of Thylacinus. In most features it is as specialised as T. cynocephalus and it is not considered to be ancestral to any other taxon. The presence of such a specialised thylacine in the Riversleigh deposits argues for a pre-Late Oligocene divergence of this group from the Dasyuridae.