Phalangeriformes is a paraphyletic suborder of about 70 species of small to medium-sized arboreal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi. The species are commonly known as possums, gliders, and cuscus. The common name "possum" for various Phalangeriformes species derives from the creatures' resemblance to the opossums of the Americas. However, although opossums are also marsupials, Australasian possums are more closely related to other Australasian marsupials such as kangaroos.
Genyornis newtoni, also known as the thunder bird and mihirung paringmal, is an extinct species of large, flightless bird that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch until around 50,000 years ago. Over two metres in height, they were likely herbivorous. Many other species of Australian megafauna became extinct in Australia around that time, coinciding with the arrival of humans. It is the last known member of the extinct flightless bird family Dromornithidae which had been part of the fauna of the Australian continent for over 30 million years. They are not closely related to ratites such as emus, and their closest living relatives are thought to be fowl.
The genus Brachylophus consists of four extant iguanid species native to the islands of Fiji and a giant extinct species from Tonga in the South West Pacific. One of the extant species, B. fasciatus, is also present on Tonga, where it has apparently been introduced by humans.
Phascolarctos is a genus of marsupials with one extant species, the koala Phascolarctos cinereus, an iconic animal of Australia. Several extinct species of the genus are known from fossil material, these were also large tree dwellers that browsed on Eucalyptus leaves.
Glyptodonts are an extinct subfamily of large, heavily armoured armadillos. They arose in South America around 48 million years ago and spread to southern North America after the continents became connected around 2.7 million years ago. The best-known genus within the group is Glyptodon. They became extinct approximately 11,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene, following the arrival of humans to the Americas.
Dorudon ("spear-tooth") is a genus of extinct basilosaurid ancient whales that lived alongside Basilosaurus 40.4 to 33.9 million years ago in the Eocene. It was a small whale, with D. atrox measuring 5 metres (16 ft) long and weighing 1–2.2 metric tons. Dorudon lived in warm seas around the world and fed on small fish and mollusks. Fossils have been found along the former shorelines of the Tethys Sea in present-day Egypt and Pakistan, as well as in the United States, New Zealand and Western Sahara.
Mekosuchus is a genus of extinct Australasian crocodiles within the subfamily Mekosuchinae. They are believed to have been made extinct by the arrival of humans on the South Pacific islands where they lived. The species of this genus were small in size, 2 m in maximum length, and terrestrial, making them the last surviving group of fully terrestrial crocodilians, leaving only semi-terrestrial species such as the Cuban crocodile and the dwarves Osteolaemus and Paleosuchus.
Dromornis is a genus of large to enormous prehistoric birds.
Chilecebus is an extinct genus of New World monkeys that lived in what is now Chile during the Early Miocene some 20 million years ago. The type species is C. carrascoensis. It had a body mass of about 1,000 g (35 oz).
Wonambi is an extinct genus of madtsoiid snakes that lived in late Neogene to late Quaternary Australia. Species of Wonambi were constrictor snakes unrelated to Australian pythons.
Protemnodon is an extinct genus of megafaunal macropodids that existed in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea in the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Members of this genus are also called giant kangaroos.
Megalibgwilia is a genus of echidna known only from Australian fossils that incorporates the oldest-known echidna species. The genus ranged from the Miocene until the late Pleistocene, becoming extinct about 50,000 years ago. Megalibgwilia species were more widespread in warmer and moist climates. The extinction can be attributed to increasing aridification in Southern Australia.
Zatrachys is an extinct genus of large and flat-headed zatracheidid temnospondyl from the early Permian of North America.
Elonichthys is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish. The genus is represented by several species from Carboniferous and Permian of Europe, Greenland, South Africa, and North America.
Ptychoceratodus is an extinct genus of lungfish living from Early Triassic to Middle Jurassic. It was established by Otto Jaekel for one species, transferred from Ceratodus genus. Type species is P. serratus from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland and Germany. Ptychoceratodus had two pairs of massive dental plates, bearing 4-6 acute ridges. Its skull roof was composed from massive, plate-like bones. In the central part of skull roof was localized an unossified fenestra. Most of the Ptychoceratodus findings are isolated dental plates, some associated with jaws. Other parts of skull or postcranial skeleton are relatively rarely found as fossils. The anatomy of skull is the best recognized in P. serratus, whereas less complete cranial material is available also for P. concinuus, P. phillipsi, and P. rectangulus. Although Ptychoceratodus is known exclusively from the Triassic and Jurassic, there were also Cretaceous specimens referred to this genus. However, they are more often regarded as representants of Metaceratodus. Ptychoceratodus is the only member of the family Ptychoceratodontidae. The first named species is P. phillipsi by Louis Agassiz in 1837 as a species of Ceratodus and later moved to Ptychoceratodus genus. Occurrences of Ptychoceratodus come mainly from Europe. However, occurrences from other continents suggest it was dispersed globally during the Triassic. After 2010, the new fossil material behind the Europe was reported from South America, India, and Greenland
Caryosyntrips ("nutcracker") is an extinct genus of radiodont which known from Canada, United States and Spain during the middle Cambrian. Caryosyntrips is known only from its 14-segmented frontal appendages, which resemble nutcrackers, recovered from the Burgess Shale Formation, Canada Wheeler Shale and Marjum Formation, United States, and Valdemiedes Formation, Spain. It was first named by Allison C. Daley, Graham E. Budd in 2010 and the type species is Caryosyntrips serratus. Caryosyntrips is thought to have used their appendages in a scissor-like grasping or slicing motion, and were probably durophagous, feeding on hard-shelled organisms. Due to the unusual morphology of the frontal appendages and the limited extent of known remains, its position within Radiodonta remains uncertain.
Vulpes skinneri is a species of extinct fox in the genus Vulpes from the early Pleistocene, identified based on fossil remains dated to about 2 million years ago. The species is known from a single partial skeleton discovered in the Malapa Fossil Site at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa and is associated with the fossil hominin remains of Australopithecus sediba. The fossils have been dated to between 1.977 and 1.980 million years ago. Hartstone-Rose and colleagues described the remains as a newly discovered species of fox, which they named skinneri after the African mammalogist John Skinner.
Neolicaphrium is an extinct genus of ungulate mammal belonging to the extinct order Litopterna. This animal lived from the Late Pliocene (Chapadmalalan) to the Late Pleistocene (Lujanian) in southern South America, being the last survivor of the family Proterotheriidae.
Yamanasaurus is an extinct genus of saltasaurine titanosaur dinosaur from the Río Playas Formation of Ecuador, which dates to the Maastrichtian epoch of the Cretaceous period. The type and only species is Yamanasaurus lojaensis. It is the first non-avian dinosaur described from Ecuador.
Madakoala is a genus of extinct phascolarctid marsupials with three known species, Madakoala devisi,Madakoala wellsiandMadakoala robustus. It is allied to extinct genera Invictokoala, Koobor, Litokoala, Nimiokoala, Perikoala, Phascolarctos and Priscakoala, along with Phascolarctos, the genus of the existing koala. Madakoala went extinct around 280,000 years ago in the Pleistocene epoch. They are known to exist by limited cranial material in fossils, so the existence of some of the subspecies is questionable because of missing dental data.
