Wakaleo

Wakaleo (indigenous Australian waka, "little", "small", and Latin leo, "lion"), was a genus of medium-sized thylacoleonids that lived in Australia in the early to late Miocene. It was approximately 2.5 ft (80 cm) long, or the size of a dog. Although much smaller than its close relative, the Marsupial Lion (Thylacoleo carnifex), Wakaleo would have been a successful hunter in its time. It had teeth specially designed for cutting and stabbing. The ocelot-sized predator Wakaleo, along with its jaguar-sized cousin Thylacoleo, were actually related to the herbivore koalas.

REFERENCES: The Book of Life. Stephen Jay Gould, John Barber, Peter Andrews. Norton, W.W.& Company Inc. 2001. ISBN 0393321568

Species

• Wakaleo alcootaensis was found in the Miocene Waite Formation in the Northern Territory in 1974. It was slightly larger than the other two species.
• Wakaleo oldfieldi was found by a group of scientists working in the Miocene Wipijiri Formation in southern Australia in 1971. They found a nearly complete left dentry which included a few well-preserved teeth.
• Wakaleo vanderleuri was first found by some field workers in 1967 in the Miocene Camfield Beds in the Northern Territory. Many more specimens have been found since then.

• {http: www.naturalworlds.org/thylacoleo/species/GS_tertiary.htm Tertiary Genera of Thylacoleonidae]
• Australia's Lost Kingdoms
• Mikko's Phylogeny Archive