Vombatus ursinus

The common wombat, also known as the bare-nosed wombat, is a marsupial, one of three extant species of wombats and the sole extant member of the genus Vombatus. It has three subspecies: Vombatus ursinus hirsutus, found on the Australian mainland; Vombatus ursinus tasmaniensis, found in Tasmania; and Vombatus ursinus ursinus, found on Flinders Island and Maria Island in the Bass Strait.

Vombatus ursinus

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
common wombatPBDB
Sits inside
VombatusPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Vombatidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Vombatus
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At most 2.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 0 of 13 occurrencesPleistocene — about 12 of 13 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 13 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.08 Mya0 Mya

13 occurrences of Vombatus ursinus 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

13 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

1 formation

D Clay — 35.70°S, 144.83°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Vombatus ursinus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Vombatus ursinus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Vombatus ursinus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

167 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Vombatus ursinus, 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

11 references

Each of the 13 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. 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 content2

Picture of Vombatus ursinus

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itVombatus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Shaw 1800)