Discover Top Posts Tagged with #australidelphia

A whole collection of Oceania marsupials! There are so many of these little creatures.

#australidelphia #bandicoot #tasmanian devil #thylacine #quoll #numbat #bilby #animals #species sketchpage #my art

It's #NationalAardvarkWeek! Besides being one of my favorite mammals, it's also the most evolutionarily distinct one (more on that below). Stay tuned for more aardvark art and info all week long! 😎 #AardvarksAareAawesome

"Erdferkel," Plate 14 in Brehms thierleben, allgemeine kunde des thierreichs, 1876-9. Biodiversity Heritage Library.

#DYK the Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) is the only living representative of an entire ORDER of mammals, Tubulidentata? This helped it score as the #1 most evolutionarily distinctive (ED) mammal on ZSL's EDGE of Existence list:

A baby aardvark was born in Antwerpen zoo in Belgium on the 6th of January, called ‘Nuru’, which means ‘light’ in Swahili. It is...

[FYI the only other mammal order with a single living member is Microbiotheria, represented by the Monito del Monte (Dromiciops gliroides) - however they have more living relatives one step out in superorder Australidelphia than the Aardvark does in the Afrotheria.]

Spotted-tail quoll (Dasyurus maculatus)

Photo by Caleb McElrea

#spotted tail quoll #tiger quoll #quoll #dasyurus maculatus #dasyurus #dasyurini #dasyurinae #dasyuridae #dasyuromorphia #australidelphia #marsupialia #metatheria #mammalia #tetrapoda #vertebrata #chordata

†Pig-footed Bandicoots (Chaeropus)

Pig-footed bandicoots were recently considered separate to all other bandicoots. Two similar species are recognized, varying in historical ranges and morphology of dentition and feet. Their fur ranged from uniform grey-brown to russet and fawn tones, helping them camouflage into arid sandy desert and grassland. From 32 to 40cms long, they measured up similarly to a small rabbit.

Chaeropus, uniquely, had feet like tiny hooves. They walked on only two functional toes of the forefeet, and one toe of the hind-foot, the rest being vestigial. They were known to run very fast, with a quick bounding gait. Though reported to eat insects, it’s thought they were largely herbivorous.

The Southern pig-footed bandicoot, C. ecaudatus, occurred through desert shrub-lands in the lower part of South Australia extending into Western Australia. C. yirratji, the Northern pig-footed bandicoot, inhabited grassland and sandy desert in central Australia and WA.

Both species were never prolific according to Indigenous oral tradition. However, they were in serious decline by the 19th century and were extinct less than 150 years after European description. Foxes were not yet established in their ranges, and though some cats were, the cessation of thousands of years traditional burning practices is thought to have been the major contributor to their extinction. Burning provided a patchwork of new growth on which to feed alongside recovered zones of shelter. Introduction of sheep and cattle also changed the landscape dramatically, further decimating crucial food sources of native animals.