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

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a po ...

in the genus ''

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 ...

'', the pig-footed bandicoots.

Taxonomy

The description of the population was revised in 2019, separating a central western population as ''

Chaeropus yirratji The northern pig-footed bandicoot (''Chaeropus yirratji'') was a small species of extinct herbivorous Australian marsupial in the genus ''Chaeropus'', the pig-footed bandicoots. It has been believed to be extinct since the mid-20th century; the ...

'' and recognised two earlier descriptions as

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

''Chaeropus ecaudatus ecaudatus'' (found in southeastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

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

Description

It has been believed to be

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

since the mid-20th century, having reportedly vanished from its final refuge in

southern Australia The term Southern Australia is generally considered to refer to the states and territories of Australia of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia. The part of Western Australia south of lati ...

by 1945. It was presumably the first of the two species of ''Chaeropus'' to go extinct. Even though, the pig footed-bandicoot went extinct they 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 dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

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

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It physically closely resembled the

northern pig-footed bandicoot The northern pig-footed bandicoot (''Chaeropus yirratji'') was a small species of extinct herbivorous Australian marsupial in the genus ''Chaeropus'', the pig-footed bandicoots. It has been believed to be extinct since the mid-20th century; the ...

(''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 sepa ...

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-physiolo ...

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 organ ...

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 (biology), order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe ...

es and feral cats, as well as

habitat degradation Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

by introduced

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q301045 Mammals described in 1838 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 (Australia) Marsupials of Australia