Rat kangaroos
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Red rat kangaroo ( Aepyprymnodon rufescens ) |
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| Potoroidae | ||||||||||||
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The potoroidae (Potoroidae) (not to be confused with the kangaroo rat ) are a family from the order of DIPROTODONTIA . They are closely related to the actual kangaroos and were previously considered a subfamily of this group. However, they differ significantly from these in some aspects (especially in nutrition). The family includes ten species, two of which are already extinct.
distribution
Rat kangaroos are typical representatives of the Australian fauna . Rat kangaroos used to be found all over Australia . In large parts of their original habitat, however, they have been exterminated, so that they only occur in isolated, often separate areas.
description
Rat kangaroos resemble the actual kangaroos in their physique . Like these, they have large rear legs and small front legs, but the difference in size is usually less than that of their relatives. The coat color varies depending on the habitat from yellowish-sand to gray to brown. They reach a head body length of 20 to 52 cm, the tail is 25 to 40 cm long. The weight is 0.5 kg for the smallest species up to 3 kg for the red rat kangaroo.
Way of life
Rat kangaroos are nocturnal and inhabit light forests or at least tree-lined areas. They spend the rest phases in nests, which they build from grass and twigs in hollow tree trunks or under overhanging branches, transporting the building material with their coiled tails. Sometimes they also move into abandoned earthworks of other animal species. Rat kangaroos are generally solitary, sometimes they come together in small groups, but these are unstructured and short-lived.
Like the actual kangaroos, they also know two types of locomotion: at low speed (for example when foraging for food) they use all four limbs, when they have to be fast (for example on the run) they only hop with their powerful hind legs.
food
When it comes to nutrition, there are the biggest differences to the actual kangaroos: rat kangaroos are omnivores, their menu includes mushrooms, tubers, seeds, but also insects, their larvae and worms. They rarely eat green plants, and their stomachs are accordingly simple. Rat kangaroos hardly need any water at all; they get the necessary fluids from food.
Reproduction
Rat kangaroos have well-developed, forward-opening pouches with four teats. Mating can take place all year round, after a gestation period of 21 to 24 days, one or two young are born. These spend the first few months of life in their mother's pouch, leave it at four months, weaned at six months and sexually mature at around one year old.
As with the actual kangaroos, there is also a delayed birth: Immediately after birth, the female mates again, but the new embryo only grows when the old young animal has left the pouch (or dies). They can give birth to young animals in quick succession and raise three young animals at the same time: one unborn, one in the bag and one outside the bag.
The life expectancy of the rat kangaroos is around four to eight years in nature, specimens in captivity can be up to twelve years old.
threat
Rat kangaroos have suffered more from the arrival of Europeans in Australia than other marsupials. The conversion of their habitat into pastureland for sheep and cattle and the stalking by introduced predators such as foxes and cats have decimated many species. Two species are irretrievably lost, some more are threatened.
Systematics
Rat kangaroos form together with the musk rat kangaroo and the kangaroos the superfamily Macropodoidea within the Diprotodontia . They are divided into four genera:
- Red rat kangaroo ( Aepyprymnodon rufescens )
- Brush kangaroos ( Bettongia ), six species, (including 1 †)
- Naked-breasted kangaroo ( Caloprymnus campestris ) †
- Rabbit kangaroos ( potorous ), four species (including 1 †)
The musk rat kangaroo ( Hypsiprymnodon moschatus ) is also traditionally counted among the rat kangaroos. In cladistic relationship analyzes (including) the recent kangaroo-like (Macropodoidea), however, it forms the sister taxon of all other representatives of this group and is therefore more likely to be placed in a separate family, the Hypsiprymnodontidae.
Shortly after its discovery, the Miocene "giant rat kangaroo " Ekaltadeta was also assigned to the rat kangaroos. This is now, also as a result of cladistic analyzes, either more closely related to the musk rat kangaroo or to other, purely fossil forms than to the actual rat kangaroos. The same applies to the Plio - Pleistocene "giant rat kangaroos" of the genus Propleopus .
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
- DE Wilson and DM Reeder: Mammal Species of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Angela Burk, Mark S. Springer: Intergeneric Relationships Among Macropodoidea (Metatheria: Diprotodontia) and The Chronicle of Kangaroo Evolution. Journal of Mammalian Evolution. Vol. 7, No. 4, 2000, pp. 213–237, doi: 10.1023 / A: 1009488431055 (alternative full text access : ResearchGate )
- ↑ LJ May-Collado, CW Kilpatrick, I. Agnarsson: Mammals from 'down under': a multi-gene species-level phylogeny of marsupial mammals (Mammalia, Metatheria). PeerJ. Vol. 3, 2015, item no. e805, doi: 10.7717 / peerj.805 (Open Access)
- ↑ Michael Archer, Timothy Flannery: Revision of the extinct gigantic rat kangaroos (Potoroidae: Marsupialia), with description of a new Miocene genus and species and a new Pleistocene species of Propleopus (Australia). Journal of Paleontology. Vol. 59, No. 6, 1985, pp. 1331-1349 ( JSTOR 1304948 ; alternative full text access : ResearchGate )
- ^ John A. Long, Michael Archer, Timothy Flannery, Suzanne Hand: Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2003, ISBN 0-8018-7223-5 , p. 151 ff.
- ^ Benjamin P. Kear, Bernard N. Cooke, Michael Archer, Timothy F. Flannery: Implications of a new species of the Oligo-Miocene kangaroo (Marsupialia: Macropodoidea) Nambaroo, from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Queensland, Australia. Journal of Paleontology. Vol. 81, No. 6, 2007, pp. 1147–1167, doi: 10.1666 / 04-218.1 (alternative full text access : ResearchGate )