Wombat marsupial

Ang Wombat, (pamilya Vombatidae), alinman sa tatlong malalaking species ng terrestrial ng marsupial ng Australia. Tulad ng mga kahoy na kahoy, ang mga sinapupunan ay mabigat na itinayo at halos mga burrower ng tailless na may maliit na mata at maikling mga tainga. Gayunpaman, ang mga Wombats ay mas malaki, na may sukat na 80 hanggang 120 cm (31 hanggang 47 pulgada) ang haba. Lubhang nocturnal at mahigpit na nakapagpapaginhawa, kumakain sila ng mga damo at, sa kaso ng karaniwang sinapupunan (Vombatus ursinus), ang panloob na bark ng puno at mga palumpong na ugat. Ang mga Wombats ay itinuturing na mga peste ng mga magsasaka dahil sila ay naghuhukay sa mga nakatanim na bukid at pastulan at dahil ang kanilang mga burrows ay maaaring mag-port sa mga kuneho.

marsupial

> mga ina, at ang koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), maraming mga mas maliliit na porma, na marami sa mga ito ay karnabal, kasama ang Tasmanian

Ang karaniwang sinapupunan ay may magaspang na madilim na buhok at isang kalbo, butil-butil na ilong pad. Karaniwan ito sa kakahuyan ng maburol na bansa kasama ang Dividing Range sa dakong timog-silangan ng Australia, mula sa timog-silangan sa Queensland hanggang sa New South Wales at Victoria papunta sa Timog Australia, at sa Tasmania. Sa mga makasaysayang panahon ang mga dwarf form ay nanirahan sa mga maliliit na isla sa Bass Strait, ngunit ang mga ito ay nawala dahil sa pagkasira ng tirahan sa pamamagitan ng pagpapagod ng mga baka.

The hairy-nosed wombats (genus Lasiorhinus) are more sociable. They make a grassy nest at the end of a large underground burrow 30 metres (100 feet) long that is shared with several other wombats. They have silky fur and pointed ears, and the nose is entirely hairy, without a bald pad. The southern hairy-nosed wombat (L. latifrons) is smaller than the common wombat; it lives in semiarid country mainly in South Australia, extending through the Nullarbor Plain into the southeast of Western Australia. The very rare Queensland, or northern, hairy-nosed wombat (L. barnardi) is larger and differs in cranial details; it is protected by law, and most of the population lives within Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland, where there are only 60 to 80 remaining. Two other populations of hairy-nosed wombats became extinct in the late 19th or early 20th century, one near St. George in southwestern Queensland and the other at Deniliquin on the Murray River in New South Wales; these closely resembled the Queensland species.

The skull of the wombat is flattened, and its bones are extremely thick. Unlike other marsupials, wombats have continuously growing rootless teeth adapted to a hard-wearing diet. The two incisor teeth in each jaw are rodentlike; there are no canine teeth. Wombats almost invariably bear one young at a time, which develops for five months or longer in a pouch that opens rearward. They become sexually mature at two years of age in the common wombat and three in the hairy-nosed wombats.

Contemporary wombats are related to the extinct giant wombat (Diprotodon) of Australia, which has been acknowledged as the largest marsupial in history. Some paleontologists separate giant wombats into two species (D. australis and D. minor) on the basis of differences in skull size. Other paleontologists, however, maintain that these variations can be explained by sexual dimorphism (the differences in appearance between males and females of the same species) and thus place all giant wombats in the species D. opatum. The largest giant wombats stood 1.7 metres (about 5.6 feet) tall at the shoulder and averaged 3 metres (10 feet) in length. At 2,000–2,500 kg (approximately 4,400–5,500 pounds), males weighed more than twice as much as females. Although many scientists contend that humans killed off the last giant wombats between 46,000 and 15,000 years ago, some scientists attribute its extinction to the increase in Australia’s aridity that accompanied the most recent global ice age.