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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, which ...
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 ...
Wombat. Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials of the family Vombatidae that are native to Australia. Living species are about 1 m (40 in) in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between 20 and 35 kg (44 and 77 lb).
Wildlife of Australia. 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 ...
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 into large herbivores. Modern marsupials appear to have reached the islands of New Guinea and Sulawesi relatively recently via Australia.
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. It was thought to be extinct for much of the 20th ...
The eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) is a marsupial found in the eastern third of Australia, with a population of several million. It is also known as the great grey kangaroo and the forester kangaroo. Although a big eastern grey male can typically weigh up to 66 kg (146 lb) and have a length of well over 2 m (6 ft 7 in), [ 4 ] the ...
The red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus [5]) is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest terrestrial mammal native to Australia, and the largest extant marsupial.It is found across mainland Australia, except for the more fertile areas, such as southern Western Australia, the eastern and southeastern coasts, and the rainforests along the northern coast.