Desert Brush Rat Kangaroo
| Desert Brush Rat Kangaroo | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Bettongia anhydra | ||||||||||||
| Finlayson , 1957 |
The Desert brush kangaroo rat ( Bettongia anhydra ) is an extinct marsupial from the genus of Bettong ( Bettongia ). The taxon was described in 1957 by Hedley Herbert Finlayson as a subspecies of the brush-tailed rat kangaroo ( Bettongia penicillata ). In a study published in 2015, it was raised to species status. The type epithet anhydra (Greek for dried up) refers to the location of the holotype , which was discovered in 1933 by geologist Michael Terry near the dried up salt lake Lake Mackay in the western Northern Territory .
features
The holotype and the only modern specimen is a damaged skull with a left and a right half of the jaw. The skull was removed from a fresh carcass that was not preserved. Therefore, the external appearance of the desert brush rat kangaroo remains unknown. Compared to other representatives of the brush kangaroo, with the exception of the nullarbor brush kangaroo ( Bettongia pusilla ), the desert brush rat kangaroo had a shorter body length and relatively larger teeth. The skull of the desert brush rat kangaroo was shortened, the rostrum was reduced in front and behind. The skull was narrow. The zygomatic arches were robust. The skull area between the eye sockets (interorbital area) was narrowed. The fourth molar was greatly reduced. The tympanic bladder was badly swollen. The canines were very well defined, but shorter than the third incisor I3. The front, short, wide palatal opening ended at the front edge of the canine compartment. The lower jaw had a sturdy horizontal branch with a longer crown process and an acute angle between the horizontal and ascending branch.
Way of life
Due to the shortened rostrum and the large incisors, it is assumed that the desert brush rat kangaroo had a stronger bite force than the other representatives of the brush kangaroos. The species may have been able to eat larger seeds. The large temporal muscles in relation to the size of the skull also support this assumption. The desert brush rat kangaroo was likely nocturnal. More is not known about the way of life.
status
The desert brush rat kangaroo was included in the IUCN's Red List of Modern Extinct Mammals in 2016 . In addition to the holotype, there is a subfossil skull of unknown date from the Stegamite Cave in Western Australia in the Nullarbor Plain . The extinction date is unknown. A point in time is assumed in the 1950s or 1960s. The extinction of the desert brush rat kangaroo is likely due to stalking by introduced red foxes and feral domestic cats combined with man-made fires.
literature
- HH Finlayson: Preliminary description of two new forms of Bettongia (Marsupialia) , Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Series 12, 10: 115, 1957, doi : 10.1080 / 00222935708655996 , pp. 552-554
- Andrew Burbidge , John Woinarski , Peter Harrison: The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012 Csiro Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-064-310-873-8 , pp. 289-290
- Kristofer Helgen and Elizabeth G. Veatch: Extinct Australian Marsupials and Monotremes In: Handbook of the Mammals of the World Volume 5: Marsupials and Monotremes, Lynx Edictions, Barcelona, 2015, ISBN 978-84-96553-99-6 , p. 28 -29
Web links
- Bettongia anhydra inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017.3. Listed by: Andrew A. Burbidge & John Zichy-Woinarski, 2016. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
Individual evidence
- ^ Matthew C. McDowell, Dalal Haouchar, Ken P. Aplin, Michael Bunce, Alexander Baynes, Gavin J. Prideaux: Morphological and molecular evidence supports specific recognition of the recently extinct Bettongia anhydra (Marsupialia: Macropodidae). Journal of Mammalogy, 96 (2), 2015, doi : 10.1093 / jmammal / gyv006 , pp. 287-296