Ekaltadeta
Ekaltadeta
Extinct genus of marsupials
Ekaltadeta is an extinct genus of marsupials related to the modern musky rat-kangaroos.[2][3][4] Ekaltadeta was present in what is today the Riversleigh formations in Northern Queensland from the Late Oligocene to the Miocene, and the genus includes three species.[5][6] The genus is hypothesized to have been either exclusively carnivorous, or omnivorous with a fondness for meat, based on the chewing teeth found in fossils.[6] This conclusion is based mainly on the size and shape of a large buzz-saw-shaped cheek-tooth, the adult third premolar, which is common to all Ekaltadeta.[7]
Fossils of the animals include two near complete skulls, and numerous upper and lower jaws.