Marsupials!! Who knew there were so many different kinds of mouse-lookin guys. Mouse-upials. This is gonna be a print for the creature mail club this month!
[ID: an illustration of many marsupials in a lineless style with a neutral color palette. The animals are labeled in the drawing, and include a kangaroo, wombat, quokka, koala, antechinus, wallaby, bilby, Tasmanian devil, bandicoot, quoll, mulgara, phascogale, dunnart, numbat, and sugar glider. End.]
It’s Fossil Friday! Standing about 6 ft (1.8 m), Diprotodon australis is one of the largest marsupials to have ever lived. Distantly related to living wombats, this massive herbivore was common throughout Australia until the end of the last Ice Age some 25,000 years ago. The specimen on display at the Museum was found in 1893. Visiting this weekend? You can see this fossil in the Hall of Primitive Mammals!
Cool Facts- The common wombat is a thick bodied, helpful marsupial. These ecological engineers aid in stirring up forest soils while digging burrows, assisting greatly in plant growth. Their burrows provide shelter for a variety of other species, ranging from echidnas to wallabies to koalas and reptiles. During the 2020 Australia brushfires, thousands of animals survived the flames by taking shelter in wombat burrows. Common wombats are tolerant of their neighbors, but if annoyed or threatened they use their thick booty to crush the threat to the side of the burrow. Wombats often live in the same burrow their entire life unless forced out by humans or if the burrow is destroyed during floods.
Rating- 12/10 (A landlord that never asks for rent.)