Vombatus hacketti, Hackett's wombat, is an extinct species of wombat that lived in Southwest Australia during the Late Pleistocene. It survived until very recently, going extinct between 10,000 and 20,000 BP.[2][3]
| Vombatus hacketti Temporal range: Late Pleistocene
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
| Order: | Diprotodontia |
| Family: | Vombatidae |
| Genus: | Vombatus |
| Species: | †V. hacketti
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Vombatus hacketti Glauert, 1910
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| Synonyms | |
|
Phascolomys hacketti[1] | |
Description
editFossils of this species were first found in Mammoth Cave.[1] Its skull was larger than that of the common wombat, indicating it grew to larger sizes.
Hackett's wombat survived longer than most other prehistoric Australian fauna. This may indicate that the arrival of humans may have played a greater role in its extinction, rather than just climate change.[4]
References
edit- ^ a b Glauert, Ludwig (1910). "The Mammoth cave". Records of the Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery. 1 (1): 11–36.
- ^ "The Recently Extinct Plants and Animals Database cubit: The Recently Extinct Plants and Animals Database Extinct Mammals: Marsupials: Vombatus hacketti". cubits.org. Archived from the original on 2017-04-20. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
- ^ MacPhee, R. D. E. (1999-06-30). Extinctions in Near Time. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9780306460920.
- ^ Prideaux, G.J. (2010). "Timing and dynamics of Late Pleistocene mammal extinctions in southwestern Australia". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 107 (51): 22157–22162. Bibcode:2010PNAS..10722157P. doi:10.1073/pnas.1011073107. PMC 3009796. PMID 21127262.