A phylogenetic solution to the Thylacoleo diet problem
Traditionally
and previously in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2337 taxa), the ‘marsupial lion’ Thylacoleo (Fig 1) and its closest known relative Wakaleo (Fig 1) nested with similar akynodont agatemyids, close to diptrotodons, like the extant koala and wombat. Those are herbivores, but Thylacoleo and Wakaleo are considered carnivores for various reasons.
Figure 1. Large Wakaleo and giant Thylacoleo here shown in several views and to scale with smaller omnivorous Caluromys and Chironectes, extant opossums derived from Didelphis.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/wakaleo.dorsal588.jpg?w=111″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/wakaleo.dorsal588.jpg?w=380″ class=”size-full wp-image-95104″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/wakaleo.dorsal588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Large Wakaleo and giant Thylacoleo here shown in several views and to scale with smaller omnivorous Caluromys and Chironectes, extant opossums derived from Didelphis.” width=”584″ height=”1573″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/wakaleo.dorsal588.jpg?w=584&h=1573 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/wakaleo.dorsal588.jpg?w=56&h=150 56w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/wakaleo.dorsal588.jpg?w=111&h=300 111w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/wakaleo.dorsal588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Large Wakaleo and giant Thylacoleo here shown in several views and to scale with smaller omnivorous Caluromys and Chironectes, extant opossums derived from Didelphis. Note the enlargement of the premolars.
Recent housekeeping in the LRT
just moved Thylacoleo and Wakaleo to nest with the water opossum, Christonectes, and the arboreal woolly opossum, Caluromys (Fig 1). Both are omnivores and otherwise nest together, but apart from other marsupial clades. Chironectes is essentially carnivorous and piscivorous, feeding on small fish, crustaceans and other aquatic animals.
This solves the carnivore among herbivores issue that earlier made the marsupial lions exceptions and outliers. Now the marsupial lions nest among ancestral omnivores to piscivores.
Of course, over time other didelphids eventually evolved to become members of the placental clade Carnivora. Others evolved to become primates and artiodactyls.
The tooth patterns
in the marsupial lions appear to more closely match those in the opossums when the small to vestigial canine-like tooth is scored as a canine, rather than as a canine-like premolar, as in akynodont marsupials. In that clade similar small canines eventually disappear in derived clade members.
Note the other dental and cranial trends shown in the smaller taxa that are expressed to a fuller extent in Wakaleo and even more so in Thylacoleo (Fig 1). The anterior premaxillary teeth rotate to the anterior of the premaxilla. The premolars enlarge and fuse in derived members of this small four taxon clade as the molar also become vestiges.
This appears to be a novel hypothesis of interrelationships.
If not, please provide a citation so I can promote it here.
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/11/06/a-phylogenetic-solution-to-the-thylacoleo-diet-problem/
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