''Vombatus hacketti'', Hackett's wombat, is an extinct species of

wombat Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials of the family Vombatidae that are native to Australia. Living species are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . They are adaptable and habitat tolerant, and are ...

that lived in

Southwest Australia Southwest Australia is a biogeographic region in Western Australia. It includes the Mediterranean-climate area of southwestern Australia, which is home to a diverse and distinctive flora and fauna. The region is also known as the Southwest Au ...

during the

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...

. It survived until very recently, going extinct between 10,000 and 20,000 BP.

Description

Fossils of this species were first found in

Mammoth Cave Mammoth Cave National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in south-central Kentucky. It encompasses portions of Mammoth Cave, the List of longest caves, longest known cave system in the worl ...

. Its skull was larger than that of the

common wombat The common wombat (''Vombatus ursinus''), also known as the bare-nosed wombat, is a marsupial, one of three extant species of wombats and the only one in the genus ''Vombatus''. It has three subspecies: ''Vombatus ursinus hirsutus'', found on the ...

, 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.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q108131049 Prehistoric vombatiforms Pleistocene marsupials Pleistocene mammals of Australia Pleistocene extinctions