Premium
The palaeoecology of the Vombatidae: did giant wombats burrow?
Author(s) -
Woolnough Andrew P.,
Steele Ver R.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
mammal review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.574
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1365-2907
pISSN - 0305-1838
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2907.2001.00077.x
Subject(s) - burrow , extant taxon , fossil record , biology , ecology , zoology , paleontology , evolutionary biology
Debate over the origins of burrowing in the Vombatidae has continued since the discovery of the remains of the largest of all wombats, Phascolonus gigas , in the nineteenth century. In this paper, we argue that the largest of the ancestors of extant wombats did not burrow due to physical and physiological limitations of burrows. Further, we suggest that the burrowing characteristics of the extant wombats were derived from an ancestor of similar body size (20–40 kg) that is presently not represented in the fossil record.