The Late Oligocene Kangaroo Well Local Fauna from the Ulta Limestone (new name), northwestern Lake Eyre Basin correlates best with vertebrate assemblages from the Etadunna, Namba and Wipajiri Formations of the central Lake Eyre Basin, and from the Carl Creek Limestone (Karumba Basin) of northwestern Queensland. The biochronologically informative marsupials, Neohelos tirarensis (Diprotodontidae, Zygomaturinae), Marlu sp. cf. M. kutjamarpensis and Pildra sp. cf. P. magnus (Pseudocheiridae), and Ektopodon ulta sp. nov. (Ektopodontidae), indicate that the Kangaroo Well Local Fauna may be slightly older than the Kutjamarpu Local Fauna (Wipajiri Formation) and slightly younger than the Ngama Local Fauna (zone D of the Etadunna Formation) of Late Oligocene age. A new species of primitive ?Wynyardiidae, Ayekaye jaredi sp. nov., is described, and the nomenclature of two extinct gastropods, Glyptophysa rodingae (McMichael) and Cupedora lloydi (McMichael) (new combinations), the type localities of which are in the Ulta Limestone, is revised in line with current taxonomy. The Ulta Limestone, an alluvial calclithite composed primarily of caliche fabrics, and its correlatives were deposited during the Miocene oscillation climatic event. Palaeoclimatic modelling using sedimentological data, crocodilians and extant analogs of fossil terrestrial gastropods indicates that the average annual temperature at Kangaroo Well during the Late Oligocene was probably between 14 and 20°C, while mean annual rainfall was probably <600 mm. Similar associations from central parts of the Lake Eyre Basin, from Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, and from Bullock Creek, north‐central Northern Territory, indicate that such conditions were widespread during depositional phases of the Miocene oscillation. Palaeoclimatic indicators do not support the presence of widespread closed forests in northwestern Queensland and across the inland of the Northern Territory and South Australia during the Miocene oscillation.

A new species of primitive bandicoot, Yarala kida sp. nov., is described from Kangaroo Well, a site in the Northern Territory of Australia. This species is possibly ancestral to Yarala burchfieldi, the type species of the Yaraloidea, and supports a late Oligocene age for the Kangaroo Well Local Fauna. The yaraloid bandicoots are likely to become important biochronological tools for Australian faunas of late Oligocene to early Miocene age, as they are widespread and diverse. Developing morphoclines for this group is therefore essential, as is publication of the mostly undescribed bandicoot material known from other sites of similar age.

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The Camfield beds, in which the Bullock Creek Local Fauna occurs, is a freshwater carbonate unit deposited in a braided-meandering river environment in which abandoned channels formed oxbow lakes. Fossil quarries in the Small Hills outcrop occur in stratigraphically superposed beds. Despite this, there are no detectable changes to the fauna obtained at different levels that demonstrate a significant biochronologic time difference. Within the small mammal fauna, macropodoids are the most abundant group at Bullock Creek. Two species have been described, Balbaroo camfieldensis and Nambaroo bullockensis. A number of other macropodid taxa are also present. A diverse 'possum' fauna is found here, in addition to the miralinids Barguru maru and Barguru kayir, including the phalangerid Wyulda sp. cf. asherjoeli. Dasyuromorphians are also present, as are yaraloid peramelemorphians, including a species referred to Yarala.