CANBERRA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Palaeontologists digging in the Australian Outback have discovered the fossils of two new marsupial species.

A team from Flinders University on Wednesday revealed that they made the discoveries while digging at the Pwerte Marnte Marnte fossil bed south of Alice Springs in central Australia.

Dating back 25 million years, the site is thought to be one of Australia's oldest mammal-bearing fossil beds.

During visits in 2020 and 2022, researchers from the Flinders' Palaeontology Laboratory found skeletal remains belonging to two new marsupials -- the wombat-like Mukupirna fortidentata and the Chunia pledgei, a relative of the modern-day possum.

The two species lived during the late Oligocene, which began about 28 million years ago and ended approximately 5 million years later.

Central Australia was wetter and forested during the epoch, allowing the species to thrive.

"These curious beasts are members of marsupial lineages that went extinct long ago, leaving no modern descendants," Arthur Crichton, a PhD candidate from the laboratory, said in a media release.

"Learning about these animals helps put the wombat and possum groups that survive today in a broader evolutionary context."

The team found 35 specimens of the Mukupirna and three of the Chunia.

They estimated the Mukupirna weighed up to 50 kg, with its skull providing some insight into what it ate.

"Intriguingly, the molars are actually pretty similar to those of some monkeys such as macaques," said co-author Professor Gavin Prideaux, director of the Palaeontology Lab.

"Modern wombats, by comparison, have teeth that grow continuously throughout their life to counteract the highly abrasive nature of their main food, grass." Enditem

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