Wabulacinus is a poorly known genus of thylacinid marsupial from Early Miocene and possibly Late Oligocene deposits at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland.

Wabulacinus was first described in 1997, emerging from an examination undertaken by Jeanette Muirhead of thylacinid fossils collected at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northwestern Queensland, Australia.

[3] A study published by Churchill and colleagues in 2024 reassigned T. macknessi to the genus Wabulacinus, forming the new combination W.

In addition, all molars display a longitudinal blade formed by the hypoconid being positioned lingually (towards the tongue) from the paracristid.

[6] In its initial description, the position of Wabulacinus within Thylacinidae was tested by performing a single most parsimonious tree.

[1] However, most cladistic analyses, such as Murray & Megirian (2006a) and Yates (2014), have recovered a sister taxa relationship between it and the type species W.

During this period of time, Australia’s climate would have been warm and permanently wet after shifting from a more cooler and drier setting in the Late Oligocene.

[10] The Camel Sputum, Neville’s Garden and Mike’s Menagerie sites have also yielded the remains of the thylacinid Ngamalacinus timmulvaneyi, and the thylacoleonids Microleo, Lekaneleo roskellyae and Wakaleo schouteni.

The two families of carnivorous marsupials likely did not compete with each other due to differences in both body size and vertical habitat segregation.

[11] Both species of Wabulacinus show adaptation towards hypercarnivory, such as the reduction of tooth complexity and elongation of the shearing crests.