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Description
Palorchestes azael, sometimes dubbed 'marsupial tapir', is a large, extinct marsupial that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene era.

I love a good, weird animal, and Palorchestes - meaning "ancient dancer/leaper"- is a cake topper for me. Firstly, their skull is so bizarrely shaped that earlier reconstructions and inferrences of this animals included a proboscis similar to contemporary tapirs. However, in the past couple of years, P. azael received a "new" face; research ruled out that their skull structure is more indicative of muscular, prehensile lips, similar to giraffids (1). Now, the taxon is generally reconstructed with a long lips. They sported incredibly muscular forelimbs with a peculiar, limited range of motion of the elbow, large and powerful claws. These may have been adaptations for more easily grasping food. With all of these adaptations, "marsupial grpund sloth" may be a more appropriate name for this animal.

Sources:

(1) Trusler, Peter William (2017). Cranial reconstruction of Palorchestes azael. Monash University. Thesis. doi.org/10.4225/03/58af7d2e8e2…
(2) Richards HL, Wells RT, Evans AR, Fitzgerald EMG, Adams JW. The extraordinary osteology and functional morphology of the limbs in Palorchestidae, a family of strange extinct marsupial giants. PLoS One. 2019 Sep 13;14(9):e0221824. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221824. PMID: 31518353; PMCID: PMC6744111.

Description
Palorchestes azael, sometimes dubbed 'marsupial tapir', is a large, extinct marsupial that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene era.

I love a good, weird animal, and Palorchestes - meaning "ancient dancer/leaper"- is a cake topper for me. Firstly, their skull is so bizarrely shaped that earlier reconstructions and inferrences of this animals included a proboscis similar to contemporary tapirs. However, in the past couple of years, P. azael received a "new" face; research ruled out that their skull structure is more indicative of muscular, prehensile lips, similar to giraffids (1). Now, the taxon is generally reconstructed with a long lips. They sported incredibly muscular forelimbs with a peculiar, limited range of motion of the elbow, large and powerful claws. These may have been adaptations for more easily grasping food. With all of these adaptations, "marsupial grpund sloth" may be a more appropriate name for this animal.

Sources:

(1) Trusler, Peter William (2017). Cranial reconstruction of Palorchestes azael. Monash University. Thesis. doi.org/10.4225/03/58af7d2e8e2…
(2) Richards HL, Wells RT, Evans AR, Fitzgerald EMG, Adams JW. The extraordinary osteology and functional morphology of the limbs in Palorchestidae, a family of strange extinct marsupial giants. PLoS One. 2019 Sep 13;14(9):e0221824. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221824. PMID: 31518353; PMCID: PMC6744111.