The southern pig-footed bandicoot (''Chaeropus ecaudatus'') was a small species of

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat n ...

marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...

in the genus ''

Chaeropus ''Chaeropus'', known as the pig-footed bandicoots, is a genus of small marsupials that became extinct during the 20th century. They were the only members of the family Chaeropodidae in order Peramelemorphia (bandicoots and bilbies), with unusua ...

'', the pig-footed bandicoots.

Taxonomy

The description of the population was revised in 2019, separating a central western population as '' Chaeropus yirratji'' and recognised two earlier descriptions as

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

''Chaeropus ecaudatus ecaudatus'' (found in southeastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

) and ''Chaeropus ecaudatus occidentalis'' (found in western and southwestern Australia).

Description

It has been believed to be

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

since the mid-20th century, having reportedly vanished from its final refuge in southern Australia by 1945. It was presumably the first of the two species of ''Chaeropus'' to go extinct. Pig footed-bandicoots were the only marsupials to walk on reduced digits both on the fore and hind feet. In addition, the pig footed-bandicoot diverges from two different species. According to molecular phylogenetic analyses they diverged from other bandicoots like the Peramelidae, and also from the bilbies like Thylacomyidae in the mid-Late Oligocene.Travouillon, Kenny J. "Oldest Fossil Remains of the Enigmatic Pig-Footed Bandicoot Show Rapid Herbivorous Evolution". Royal Society Open Science, vol. 3, no. 8, 2016, p. 160089., doi:10.1098/rsos.160089. It is thought to have been distributed in

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

habitats in the southern regions of Australia's deserts, and its range likely extended to

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It physically closely resembled the northern pig-footed bandicoot (''C. yirratji''), but it had fewer holes on its

palate The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sep ...

and shorter feet. It also had a different

dentition Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, it is the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age. That is, the number, type, and morpho-physiology ...

than ''C. yirratji'', indicating that it may have had a different diet. ''C. ecaudatus'' rapidly adapted to drying conditions and changing environment, quickly becoming a grazer in a short period of time ''C. ecaudatu''s is thought to have undergone rapid herbivorous evolution due to lesser high crown and lateral blade development on the lower molars found in an ancestral species, ''Chaeropus baynesi''. The two species were formerly considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

until a study released in 2019 found them to be separate species. This species likely went extinct due to predation by introduced

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...

es and feral cats, as well as

habitat degradation Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

by introduced

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q301045 Mammals described in 1838 Extinct animals of Australia Extinct mammals of Australia Peramelemorphs Extinct marsupials Mammal extinctions since 1500 Extinct mammals of South Australia Mammals of Western Australia Mammals of New South Wales Mammals of Victoria (state) Marsupials of Australia Taxa named by William Ogilby