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Dinosgacha

Mammal

Palorchestes

Palorchestes was an unusual large marsupial with powerful forelimbs and a distinctive skull.

Palorchestes was an unusual large marsupial with powerful forelimbs and a distinctive skull. Its head and limbs have prompted reconstructions quite different from those of a living wombat.

Three stages. One companion.

Game artwork
AI-generated Dinosgacha game illustration of Palorchestes (Palorchestes azael), baby stage.
BabyView full size: Palorchestes Baby
AI-generated Dinosgacha game illustration of Palorchestes (Palorchestes azael), juvenile stage.
JuvenileView full size: Palorchestes Juvenile
AI-generated Dinosgacha game illustration of Palorchestes (Palorchestes azael), adult stage.
AdultView full size: Palorchestes Adult

AI-generated, stylized game illustrations. These designs and growth stages are imaginative, not scientific reconstructions.

Palorchestes at a glance

Diet
Herbivore
Its feeding anatomy is interpreted as adapted to plant food.
When it lived
Pleistocene
Group
Palorchestidae
Palorchestidae

Beyond the game

The real Palorchestes

Palorchestes was an unusual large marsupial with powerful forelimbs and a distinctive skull. Its head and limbs have prompted reconstructions quite different from those of a living wombat.

Its forelimb construction is an especially distinctive part of the skeleton. Details of the face and other soft tissues are less directly known than the bones.

Fossil discoveries

Queensland, Australia · approximate locationSouth Australia, Australia · approximate locationTasmania, Australia · approximate locationVictoria, Australia · approximate locationNew South Wales, Australia · approximate locationQueensland, Australia · approximate location
Queensland, AustraliaSouth Australia, AustraliaTasmania, AustraliaVictoria, AustraliaNew South Wales, Australia

Selected fossil records · present-day map

Map references

Paleobiology Database · P. M. A. Willis and R. E. Molnar. 1997. A review of the Plio-Pleistocene crocodilian genus Pallimnarchus. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 117:224-242 ↗

Paleobiology Database · G. J. Prideaux. 2004. Systematics and evolution of the sthenurine kangaroos. In S. W. Awramik, A. Barnosky, J. A. Doyle, M. L. Droser, P. M. Sadler (eds.), UC Publications in Geological Sciences, University of California Press 146:1-623 ↗

Paleobiology Database · M. R. Banks, E. A. Colhoun, and G. van de Geer. 1976. Late quaternary Palorchestes azael (Mammalia, Diprotodontidae) from northwestern Tasmania. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 1(2):159-166 ↗

Paleobiology Database · T. Flannery and B. Gott. 1984. The Spring Creek locality, southwestern Victoria, a late surviving megafaunal assemblage. The Australian Zoologist 21(4):385-422 ↗

Paleobiology Database · M. Fillios, J. Field, and B. Charles. 2010. Investigating human and megafauna co-occurrence in Australian prehistory: Mode and causality in fossil accumulations at Cuddie Springs. Quaternary International 211(1-2):123-143 ↗

Paleobiology Database · P. M. A. Willis and R. E. Molnar. 1997. A review of the Plio-Pleistocene crocodilian genus Pallimnarchus. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 117:224-242 ↗

Map: Natural Earth, public domain. Fossil records: Paleobiology Database and linked collections and publications.

Sources & text credits

Explore the references behind this profile.

  1. The extraordinary osteology and functional morphology of the limbs in Palorchestidae
  2. Paleobiology Database: Palorchestes azael

Original English Dinosgacha summaries informed by the linked scientific and museum references; source publications retain their own rights.

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