by Peter Rowland | Monday, October 19, 2020
Macropods (Family: Macropodidae) Macropods are all relatively large marsupials, ranging from the Quokka Setonix brachyurus (smallest) to the Red Kangaroo Osphranter rufus (largest), and 42 remain today (with a further 4 declared extinct). Macropods are a versatile,...
by Peter Rowland | Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Mammals (Class: Mammalia) Around 386 species of mammal are found in Australia, around 7% of the world’s total, however 87% of these species are endemic to Australia and 20% of them are considered threatened. The name mammalia was coined by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, from...
by Peter Rowland | Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Marsupials (Infraclass: marsupialia or metatheria) Over 330 species of marsupials exist today. Around two-thirds of these occur in Australia, and the remainder live mainly in South America Australian marsupials consist of the carnivorous and...
by Peter Rowland | Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Megafauna Australia’s mammal fauna has been shaped from around 40 million years of isolation from the other continents in the world. The monotremes and marsupials have a higher percentage of endemics than the bats and rodents, with the latter likely to be much more...
