''Lagorchestes'' is a genus of small, rabbit-like mammals commonly known as hare-wallabies. It includes four species native to Australia and New Guinea, two of which are extinct. Hare-wallabies belong to the macropod family (
Macropodidae
Macropodidae is a family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. These genera are allied to the suborder Macropodiformes, containing other macropods, and ar ...
) which includes
kangaroos
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...
,
wallabies
A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...
, and other
marsupials.
Species
It has four species, two of which are extinct:
Extinct
The oldest known
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
of ''Lagorchestes'' is an 11,000-year-old one of the
extant spectacled hare-wallaby.
[
]
References
Macropods
Marsupials of Australia
Marsupial genera
Taxa named by John Gould
{{Diprotodont-stub