A new species, Balbaroo fangaroo, of balbarine kangaroo is described from the freshwater limestone deposits at Riversleigh, northern Australia. The type specimens include two partial skulls which reveal hitherto unknown characters of Balbarinae and provide new evidence relevant to the resolution of the phylogenetic affinities of Balbarinae. A number of the newly-revealed characters, e.g., squamosal-frontal contact on the walls of the neurocranium, are argued as being plesiomorphic for Macropodoidea.

Hypertrophied upper canines which occur in the paratype, have never previously been recorded in kangaroos and represent an example of evolutionary convergence between these herbivorous marsupials and ungulate eutherians.