Broad-headed kangaroo
| Broad-headed kangaroo | ||||||||||||
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Broad-headed kangaroo ( Potorous platyops ) |
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| Potorous platyops | ||||||||||||
| ( Gould , 1844) |
The broad-headed kangaroo ( Potorous platyops ) is an extinct marsupial from the genus of the rabbit kangaroo ( Potorous ) within the family of the rat kangaroo .
features
The broad-headed kangaroo reached a head-torso length of 305 mm, a tail length of 178 mm, a hind foot length of 54 mm and a weight of about 800 g. The top was gray-brown and appeared streaked by the straw-colored ends of the hair. The flanks were gray, the underside, including the feet, was light gray. The head was broad, the muzzle was rather short.
Occurrence
The broad-headed kangaroo was only known to be alive from southwestern Western Australia . Subfossil finds suggest that it was originally distributed from the southern edge of the Nullarbor Desert in Western Australia through Kangaroo Island in South Australia to the lower reaches of the Murray River .
Habitat and way of life
The broad-headed kangaroo inhabited high forests. Nothing is known about his way of life.
status
The holotype of the broad-headed kangaroo was shot by John Gilbert in the area of Goomalling and King George Sound in Western Australia in 1842 and described by John Gould in 1844 . In the 1860s, the naturalist George Masters collected five more specimens between King George Sound and the Pallinup River . The last five known specimens were collected between 1874 and 1875 and sold to the National Museum in Victoria. A specimen supposedly mistaken for a broad-headed kangaroo from the Margaret River region near Busselton , which the London Zoo acquired in 1908, turned out to be a misidentified juvenile quokka . A 1977 expedition by the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife to rediscover the species remained unsuccessful. Possible causes of extinction were the re-enactment by feral cats and introduced diseases.
literature
- Peter Menkhorst: A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia. Oxford University Press, South Melbourne et al. 2001, ISBN 0-19-550870-X .
- Jane Thornback & Martin Jenkins (1982): The IUCN Mammal Red Data Book. Volume 1: Threatened mammalian taxa of the Americas and the Australasian zoogeographic region (excluding Cetacea) . IUCN. ISBN 9782880326005