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Australia is home to two of the five extant species of monotremes and the majority of the world's marsupials (the remainder are from Papua New Guinea, eastern Indonesia and the Americas). The taxonomy is somewhat fluid; this list generally follows Menkhorst and Knight [ 1 ] and Van Dyck and Strahan, [ 2 ] with some input from the global list ...
The mammals of Australia have a rich fossil history, as well as a variety of extant mammalian species, dominated by the marsupials, but also including monotremes and placentals. The marsupials evolved to fill specific ecological niches, and in many cases they are physically similar to the placental mammals in Eurasia and North America that ...
Koala Humpback whale. A total of 386 species of mammals have been recorded in Australia and surrounding continental waters: 364 indigenous and 22 introduced. [1] The list includes 2 monotremes, 154 marsupials, 83 bats, 69 rodents (5 introduced), 10 pinnipeds, 2 terrestrial carnivorans (1 recent introduction, and 1 prehistoric introduction), 13 introduced ungulates, 2 introduced lagomorphs, 44 ...
The class Mammalia is divided into two subclasses based on reproductive techniques: egg-laying mammals (yinotherians or monotremes - see also Australosphenida), and mammals which give live birth . The latter subclass is divided into two infraclasses: pouched mammals ( metatherians or marsupials ), and placental mammals ( eutherians , for which ...
The journey must not have been easy; South American ungulate [92] [93] [94] and xenarthran [95] remains have been found in Antarctica, but these groups did not reach Australia. In Australia, marsupials radiated into the wide variety seen today, including not only omnivorous and carnivorous forms such as were present in South America, but also ...
Wombats typically live up to 15 years in the wild, but can live past 20 and even 30 years in captivity. [26] [27] The longest-lived captive wombat lived to 34 years of age. [27] In 2020, biologists discovered that wombats, like many other Australian marsupials, display bio-fluorescence under ultraviolet light. [28] [29] [30]
A marsupial lion skeleton in the Naracoorte Caves, South Australia. The term Australian megafauna refers to the megafauna in Australia [1] during the Pleistocene Epoch.Most of these species became extinct during the latter half of the Pleistocene, and the roles of human and climatic factors in their extinction are contested.
Gilbert's potoroo or ngilkat (Potorous gilbertii) is Australia's most endangered marsupial, the rarest marsupial in the world, and one of the world's rarest critically endangered mammals, found in south-western Western Australia. It is a small nocturnal macropod that lives in small groups.