Vombatidae

Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials of the family Vombatidae that are native to Australia. Living species are about one metre (40 in) in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between 20 and 35 kg. They are adaptable and habitat tolerant, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of southern and eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as an isolated patch of about 300 ha in Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland.

Vombatidae

JJ Harrison ( jjharrison89@facebook.com ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
wombatPBDB
Sits inside
VombatoideaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Marsupialia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 80 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 7 of 80 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 14 of 80 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 56 of 80 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 13 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 15 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 32 occurrences15.98 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

80 occurrences of Vombatidae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

80 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

13 formations

Whaler's Bluff — 38.36°S, 141.60°EGrange Burn — 37.70°S, 141.95°ERowsley — 37.70°S, 144.45°EMoorabool Viaduct Sand — 38.12°S, 144.28°ENelson Bay — 38.60°S, 141.58°EWipajiri — 27.75°S, 140.73°EMoorna Sandstone — 34.13°S, 141.62°EAllingham — 19.72°S, 145.60°EMoorna — 34.12°S, 141.65°EKatipiri — 28.39°S, 138.32°EWyandotte — 18.77°S, 144.85°ED Clay — 35.70°S, 144.83°ESystem B — 19.01°S, 138.67°E

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The named rock units Vombatidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 67 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Vombatidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Vombatidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

481 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 62 sites for Vombatidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

46 references

Each of the 80 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 34 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Vombatidae

Credit
JJ Harrison ( jjharrison89@facebook.com )
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Vombatidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itVombatoidea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Burnett 1829