Archerus

{{Short description|Extinct genus of marsupials}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Early to Middle Miocene

| image =

| image_caption =

| taxon = Archerus

| authority = Myers & Crosby, 2023

| type_species = †Archerus johntoniae

| type_species_authority = Myers & Crosby, 2023

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

• A. johntoniae

}}

Archerus is a genus of extinct marsupials from Miocene Australia. It is known from jawbones and partial skulls from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland, dated to between {{mya|18|12}}. These are sufficient to identify it as a phalangerid, perhaps more closely related to the brushtail possums than to the cuscuses, but with many distinctive skeletal features that make the latter relationship uncertain; it may have lived before the two branches of the living family diverged from one another. It is estimated to have weighed around {{cvt|1.3|kg}}, similar to the living scaly-tailed possum, and the shape of its teeth suggest that it had a similarly omnivorous diet.{{cite journal |last1= Myers |first1= T. |last2= Crosby |first2= K. |date= March 2023 |title= A new Early–Middle Miocene phalangerid (Marsupialia: Phalangeridae) from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park, northwestern Queensland |journal= Alcheringa |volume= 47 |issue= 4 |pages= 522–533 |doi= 10.1080/03115518.2023.2185677|doi-access= free |bibcode= 2023Alch...47..522M }}