The order Peramelemorphia includes the bandicoots and bilbies; it equates approximately to the mainstream of marsupial omnivores. All members of the order are endemic to the twin land masses of Australia-New Guinea and most have the characteristic bandicoot shape: a plump, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, very large upright ears, relatively long, thin legs, and a thin tail. Their size varies from about 140 grams up to 4 kilograms, but most species are about one kilogram, or the weight of a half-grown kitten.
Thylacinidae is an extinct family of carnivorous, superficially dog-like marsupials from the order Dasyuromorphia. The only species to survive into modern times was the thylacine, which became extinct in 1936.
The magpie goose is the sole living representative species of the family Anseranatidae. This common waterbird is found in northern Australia and southern New Guinea. As the species is prone to wandering, especially when not breeding, it is sometimes recorded outside its core range. The species was once also widespread in southern Australia, but disappeared from there largely due to the drainage of the wetlands where the birds once bred. Due to their importance to Aboriginal people as a seasonal food source, as subjects of recreational hunting, and as a tourist attraction, their expansive and stable presence in northern Australia has been "ensured protective management".
Anseranatidae, the magpie-geese, is a biological family of waterbirds. The only living species, the magpie goose, is a resident breeder in northern Australia and in southern New Guinea.
Barawertornis tedfordi was a dromornithid (mihirung), a large flightless fowl hailing from Late Oligocene to Early Miocene. The only species in the genus Barawertornis, its fossil remains are found in strata of the Riversleigh deposits located at two sites in Northwestern Queensland, Australia.
The Riversleigh rainforest koala is an extinct marsupial, closely related to the extant koala, that inhabited northwestern Queensland in the early-middle Miocene. Along with species of sister genus Litokoala, the Riversleigh rainforest koala is the smallest representative of family Phascolarctide. Based on cladistic analysis, Nimiokoala is one of the more basal genera of Phascolarctide. It died out due to climate change rendering the environment more arid. It probably had a more generalized diet than that of the modern species, but its exact food preferences are unknown.
Litokoala is an extinct genus of marsupials, and along with Nimiokoala, is closely related to the modern koala. The three genera may have diverged at an earlier date, although the drying of the continent and the expansion of Eucalyptus forests towards the late Miocene may have delayed the evolution of cranial features unique to the modern genera. This indicates that either fossil genus could be an ancestor of the modern genus, or the modern genus has a common ancestor to both. More material needs collection to improve their taxonomical relationships.
Ganguroo is a genus of fossil macropods found at Riversleigh in Australia, material dating from the Middle to Late Miocene Epoch. The type species of the genus is Ganguroo bilamina, published in 1997. Two recently described species, Ganguroo bites and Ganguroo robustiter, have also been placed in this genus.
Naraboryctes philcreaseri is a fossil species of marsupial found at early Miocene deposits of Boodjamulla National Park of Riversleigh area, northwestern Queensland, Australia.
Priscakoala is an extinct genus of koala from the Early Miocene of Riversleigh, Australia. It has one species: Priscakoala lucyturnbullae.
Longmornis robustirostrata is an extinct genus and species of bird in the old world oriole family. It was described from Early Miocene material found at the Neville's Garden fossil site at Riversleigh in north-western Queensland, Australia. Its closest living relatives are the figbirds (Sphecotheres), which its beak most closely resembles. It was named in honour of Noel Wayne Longmore, an ornithologist of the Australian Museum, and for its broad, robustly built beak. It was a mid to large sized passerine, comparable in size to the Australian black-faced cuckooshrike, and was presumed to be a frugivore like modern figbirds.
Menura tyawanoides is an extinct species of lyrebird from the Early Miocene of Australia. It was described by Walter Boles from fossil material found in terrestrial limestone at the Upper Site of Riversleigh, in the Boodjamulla National Park of north-western Queensland. It was smaller than the two living species of lyrebirds. The specific epithet comes from tyawan and the Greek suffix –oides (“resembling”).
Cookeroo is a genus of extinct kangaroos from the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene found in fossil deposits from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, in Australia. The genus includes two species, C. bulwidarri and C. hortusensis.
Rhinonicteris tedfordi is an extinct species of microbat, of the order Chiroptera, known from fossil material found in Australia.
Suzanne J. Hand is an associate professor at the University of New South Wales, a teacher of geology and biology, who has a special interest in vertebrate palaeontology and modern mammals. Her research has been published in over a hundred articles, and is especially focused on the subjects of evolutionary biology, functional morphology, phylogenetics, and biogeography. Hand is a co-leader of the research team investigating the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, regarded as one of the four most important sites of fossil-bearing formations in the world.
Riversleigh fauna is the collective term for any species of animal identified in fossil sites located in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area.
Macroderma godthelpi is a species of bat known from fossil material found in Australia, one of the larger carnivorous megadermatid family of the order Chiroptera. They resembled the modern species Macroderma gigas, known as a false vampire or ghost bat, although significantly smaller than any other species of Macroderma.
Crash bandicoot is an extinct bandicoot, known from fossils located at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northeast Australia.
Liyamayi dayi is a mammal species of the Thylacomyidae family known from fossils located at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northeast Australia. The discovery of the specimens was identified as deposited around fifteen million years ago, revising the earliest record of this peramelemorphian lineage from those of species that existed around ten million years later.
Lekaneleo roskellyae is a fossil species of carnivorous marsupial that existed during the early Miocene in Australia. Once allied to the type species of the genus Priscileo, later placed as Wakaleo pitikantensis, "Priscileo" roskellyae was subsequently transferred to its own genus Lekaneleo.
