Editing Tree-kangaroo (section)

==Evolutionary history==
The evolutionary history of tree-kangaroos possibly begins with a rainforest floor-dwelling [[Balbaridae|pademelon-like ancestor]].<ref name="Martin" /> This ancestor possibly evolved from an arboreal [[Phalangeriformes|possum-like ancestor]] as is suspected of all macropodid marsupials in Australia and New Guinea. During the late [[Eocene]], the Australian/New Guinean continent began a period of drying that caused a retreat in the area of rainforest,<ref name=Archer91>{{cite book|last=Archer|first=Mike|title=Riversleigh: The Story of Animals in Ancient Rainforest of Inland Australia|year=1991|publisher=Reed Books |location=Bangowlah, NSW}}</ref> which forced the ancestral [[pademelons]] to begin living in a drier, rockier environment. After some generations of adaptation to the new environment, the pademelons may have evolved into [[rock-wallaby|rock-wallabies]] (''Petrogale'' spp.),<ref name="Martin" /> which developed a generalist feeding strategy due to their dependence on a diverse assortment of vegetation refuges.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Tuft|first=KD|author2=Crowther, M.S. |author3=McArthur, C. |title=Multiple scales of diet selection of brush-tailed rock-wallabies (''Petrogale penicillata'')|journal=Australian Mammalogy|year=2011|volume=33|issue=2|pages=169–180|doi=10.1071/am10041}}</ref> This generalist strategy allowed the rock-wallabies to easily adapt to [[Malesia]]n rainforest types that were introduced to Australia from Asia during the mid-Miocene.<ref name="Martin"/><ref name=Archer91/> The rock-wallabies that migrated into these introduced forests adapted to spend more time climbing trees. One species in particular, the [[Proserpine rock-wallaby]] (''Petrogale persephone''), displays equal preference for climbing trees as for living in rocky outcrops.<ref name="Martin" /> During the Late Miocene, the semi-arboreal rock-wallabies could have evolved into the now extinct tree-kangaroo genus ''[[Bohra (mammal)|Bohra]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Flannery|first1=Timothy |first2=Roger |last2=Martin |first3=Alexandra |last3=Szalay |title=Tree-kangaroos: A Curious Natural History|publisher=Reed Books|location=Melbourne VIC|pages=68–72 |isbn=978-0-7301-0492-6 |year=1996}}</ref> Global cooling during the Pleistocene caused continent-wide drying and rainforest retractions in Australia and New Guinea.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hopkins|first=M. S.|author2=J. Ash |author3=A. W. Graham |author4=J. Head |author5=R. K. Hewitt |title=Charcoal evidence of the spatial extent of the Eucalyptus woodland expansions and rainforest contractions in North Queensland during the late Pleistocene|journal=Journal of Biogeography|year=1993|volume=20|issue=4|pages=357–372|doi=10.2307/2845585|jstor=2845585|bibcode=1993JBiog..20..357H }}</ref>

The rainforest contractions isolated populations of ''Bohra'' which resulted in the evolution of today's tree-kangaroos (''Dendrolagus'' spp.), as they adapted to lifestyles in geographically small and diverse rainforest fragments, and became further specialized for a canopy-dwelling lifestyle.<ref>{{cite book|last=Prideaux, G. J.|first=Warburton, N.M.|title=Macropods|year=2010|publisher=CSIRO|location=Collingwood, VIC|pages=137–151}}</ref>