Wakaleo vanderleuri

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Wakaleo vanderleuri is the name given to fossils of a marsupial "lion", living in Australia from about 16 to 10 million years ago. It was not related to real cats, being a marsupial like its closest relatives, koala bears and wombats. It is hypothesized to have been an omnivore which ate significant amounts of meat, perhaps more like a bear in diet and habit than like an actual lion. It did not actually have large canine-like fangs, producing some controversey regarding just how much it actually preyed on living animals. The meat-eating assumption is based largely on the pattern of chewing teeth in its cheeks.

Its fossils were originally found in the Bollock Creek area.

References

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