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wombat |
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wombat, shy marsupial marsupial (märs ..... Click the link for more information. of Australia and Tasmania, related to the koala. The wombat is a thick-set animal with a large head, short legs (giving it a shuffling gait), and a very short tail. It is about 3 ft (91.5 cm) long. Its snout is either naked, as in the species Vombatus ursinus, or furred, as in Lasiorhinus latifrons. Its incisors, the only teeth, grow continually, like those of rodents. Wombats are native to savanna forests and grasslands. They are solitary, nocturnal animals that feed chiefly on grass, roots, and bark and have been known to gnaw down large trees. They are powerful burrowers, digging tunnels by lying on their sides and pushing out soil with their feet. Their burrows, which may be 100 ft (31.5 m) long, terminate in grassy nests. A single infant is carried by its mother in a marsupial pouch for a period of 6 to 12 months. Extinct wombats as large as hippopotamuses are known from fossil evidence. Wombats are classified in the phylum Chordata Chordata (kôrdā`tə,–dä`–) ..... Click the link for more information. , subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Marsupialia, family Vombatidae. wombatEither of two species (family Vombatidae) of nocturnal Australian marsupials that are heavily built, 28–47 in. (70–120 cm) long, and tailless. The single newborn develops in the mother's pouch for about five months. Wombats eat grasses, tree bark, and shrub roots. They make a grassy nest at the end of a long burrow. The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) of southeastern Australia and Tasmania, considered a pest, has coarse dark hair and short ears. The rare Queensland hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus barnardi) has fine fur and longer ears; protected by law, the population lives principally in a national park.wombat any of various burrowing herbivorous Australian marsupials, esp Vombatus ursinus, constituting the family Vombatidae and having short limbs, a heavy body, and coarse dense fur
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| Among the animals that went extinct were several species of kangaroos and wombats and some other creatures found nowhere else. Casualties of that era include several species of kangaroos and wombats as well as marsupials that filled the ecological niches elsewhere populated by lions, hyenas, hippos, and tapirs. Wombats, quolls, potoroos, little penguins, giant lobsters and pademelons all populate the pages of this eco-adventure with Brooklyn nature writers Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson, but it's the elusive, thought-to-be-extinct Tasmanian tiger (or thylacine) they track that is at the mysterious center of it all. |
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