Wakaleo

Wakaleo (Diyari waka, "little", "small"; and Latin leo, "lion") is an extinct genus of medium-sized thylacoleonids that lived in Australia in the Late Oligocene and Miocene Epochs.

Wakaleo was erected in 1974 by W. A. Clemens and M. Plane. Five species are known:

Wakaleo is a genus of the thylacoleonid family of predatory mammals, which are known as marsupial lions. The size of Wakaleo species increases over the course of the evolution of the genus. W. schouteni is estimated to have weighed approximately 23 kilograms (51 lb), comparable to a dog, while W. vanderleueri and W. alcootaensis are estimated to have had bodymasses of 30 kilograms (66 lb) and 50 kilograms (110 lb).

The first description was given in an examination of material discovered at Alcoota in the Northern Territory of Australia. The holotype was a single fossil maxilla fragment found in 1974 by the palaeontologist Michael Archer.

Fossil material of this species is fragmentary and rare, and it is only known amongst the Alcoota local fauna. Further evidence of the animals cranial and dental features were examined in 2014, leading to a revision of Wakaleo alcootaensis that provided further support to the separation from earlier Wakaleo species.

Wakaleo oldfieldi is an extinct species of marsupial lions of the genus Wakaleo, found in Miocene deposits of South Australia. It had three unfused molar teeth instead of two fused molars as is the case with the Pleistocene Thylacoleo carnifex. As with Thylacoleo carnifex, this species is presumed to have used its maxillary (upper) teeth to hold its food and sharpen the mandibular teeth, the latter were also used in slicing and stabbing during eating. The premolars also had a crescent-shaped circumference for slicing.

The description by Rauscher was published in 1987, naming a new species and genus as Priscileo pitikantensis. The designation as the type species of the genus Priscileo was later recognised as a species of a revised description of Wakaleo. Fossil material examined by Rauscher was obtained at Lake Pitikanta, situated to the east of Lake Eyre.

The smallest known species of Wakaleo, it lived in Australia about 25 million years ago, from the late Oligocene to middle Miocene, and was approximately the size of a cat. They were mid-sized predators who probably hunted in trees or ambushed prey from a branch. Like the later discovery, Wakaleo schouteni, the species possesses three premolars and four molars which distinguishes them from others of the genus. A little smaller than W. schouteni, this species also differs in the morphology of the humerus.