Macropodiformes is a suborder of Australian marsupial mammals. Members of this suborder are called macropodiformes, and include kangaroos, wallabies, bettongs, potoroos, and rat-kangaroos. Macropodiformes is one of three suborders that form the order Diprotodontia, the largest extant order of marsupials. They are found in Australia and New Guinea, generally in forests, shrublands, grasslands, and savannas, though some species can also be found in deserts and rocky areas. They range in size from the musky rat-kangaroo, at 20 cm (8 in) plus a 6 cm (2 in) tail, to the red kangaroo, at 160 cm (63 in) plus a 120 cm (47 in) tail. Macropodiformes primarily eat leaves, grass, ferns, and shrubs, as well as fruit and other plant material.
Many macropodiformes do not have population estimates, but the ones that do range from 40 individuals to 500,000. Ten species are categorized as endangered: Calaby's pademelon, Cape York rock-wallaby, dingiso, Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo, ifola, Matschie's tree-kangaroo, mountain pademelon, nabarlek, northern bettong, and Proserpine rock-wallaby. A further six species are categorized as critically endangered: the black dorcopsis, Gilbert's potoroo, golden-mantled tree-kangaroo, tenkile, Wondiwoi tree-kangaroo, and woylie. Eight species have gone extinct in the modern era, all between the 1880s and the 1940s after the colonization of Australia began: the broad-faced potoroo, crescent nail-tail wallaby, desert bettong, desert rat-kangaroo, eastern hare-wallaby, Lake Mackay hare-wallaby, Nullarbor dwarf bettong, and toolache wallaby.
The seventy-two extant species of Macropodiformes are divided into three families: Hypsiprymnodontidae, containing a single species, the musky rat-kangaroo; Macropodidae, containing sixty-three species divided between the twelve genera in the subfamily Macropodinae and the single genus of the subfamily Sthenurinae; and Potoroidae, containing eight species in three extant genera. Dozens of extinct Macropodiformes species have been discovered, though due to ongoing research and discoveries the exact number and categorization is not fixed.[1]