''Crash bandicoot'' is an extinct

bandicoot Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago t ...

, known from fossils located at the

Riversleigh World Heritage Area Riversleigh World Heritage Area is Australia's most famous fossil location, recognised for the series of well preserved fossils deposited from the Late Oligocene to more recent geological periods. The fossiliferous limestone system is located ne ...

in northeast Australia.

Taxonomy

The primary etymology is a reference to the eponymous character of the video game franchise

Crash Bandicoot ''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series c ...

, and the gender of the genus name ''Crash'' is stated to be masculine. The description for a new species of

Riversleigh fauna Riversleigh fauna is the collective term for any species of animal identified in fossil sites located in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area. Faunal zones The presence of the Riversleigh in the Oligo-Miocene has been exceptionally well preserved ...

was published in 2014, the authors proposing the specific epithet for the resemblance to the modern peramelid family of

and the generic term "crash" for the unexpected appearance of the taxon at a Riversleigh site from the Miocene epoch. The authors state this secondary allusion is to the species "crashing" out of a region of wet rainforest and radiating in the semiarid to arid habitat favoured by the modern species of bandicoots.

Description

A genus known by a single species, ''Crash bandicoot'' is recognised as an early representative of a peramelid lineage that separated from the

Chaeropodidae ''Chaeropus'', known as the pig-footed bandicoots, is a genus of small mammals that became extinct during the 20th century. They were unique marsupials, of the order Peramelemorphia (bandicoots and bilbies), with unusually thin legs, yet were ab ...

, a family represented by the modern pig-footed bandicoots ''

Chaeropus ''Chaeropus'', known as the pig-footed bandicoots, is a genus of small mammals that became extinct during the 20th century. They were unique marsupials, of the order Peramelemorphia (bandicoots and bilbies), with unusually thin legs, yet were a ...

'', and

Thylacomyidae ''Macrotis'' is a genus of desert-dwelling marsupial omnivores known as bilbies or rabbit-bandicoots; Unabridged they are members of the order Peramelemorphia. At the time of European colonisation of Australia, there were two species. The ...

family of the extant bilby genus ''

Macrotis ''Macrotis'' is a genus of desert-dwelling marsupial omnivores known as bilbies or rabbit-bandicoots; Unabridged they are members of the order Peramelemorphia. At the time of European colonisation of Australia, there were two species. The ...

''. Prior to the discovery of the specimen, the earliest known fossil species of the family were ''

Perameles bowensis ''Perameles bowensis'' is an extinct Pliocene-aged species of bandicoot. Fossils have been found in the Wellington Caves of New South Wales.Muirhead, J., Dawson, L. & Archer, M. 1997. Perameles bowensis, a new species of ''Perameles'' (Peramelomo ...

'' and ''

Perameles allinghamensis ''Perameles allinghamensis'', the Bluff Downs bandicoot, is a small extinct bandicoot that lived in Australia 4 million years ago in the Pliocene period. It was discovered at the Bluff Downs fossil site in northern Queensland ) , nickname ...

'', both found in

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Eastern states of Australia The eastern states of Australia are the states adjoining the east continental coastline of Australia. These are the mainland states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and the island state of Tasmania. The Australian Capital Territor ...

. The body mass is estimated to have been around one kilogram. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

and only known specimen is a section of the animal's right maxillary with remaining evidence of intact molars M1–M3 and alveoli of the fourth molar.

Distribution and habitat

The distribution of ''Crash bandicoot'' is restricted to Riversleigh, an area rich in series of well preserved fossil mammals. The only known location of specimens is the Alan's Ledge 1990 Site (AL90) at Riversleigh, at one time a cave. The dating of the site of deposition is middle Miocene, Riversleigh Faunal Zone C. approximately 15 mya, once a wet rainforest that dominated the Riversleigh area. The fauna discovered at the same site support the evidence of a local wet rainforest environment, and finding evidence of the still present bandicoot lineage at this early period implies that they first diversified in an area subject to an increasingly arid climate as the continent moved toward the equator.

References

{{taxobar, from=Q65966429, from2=Q65966424 Riversleigh fauna Peramelemorphs Species described in 2014 Prehistoric marsupials Fossil taxa described in 2014 Crash Bandicoot