| Bettongia anhydra | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
| Order: | Diprotodontia |
| Family: | Potoroidae |
| Genus: | Bettongia |
| Species: | †B. anhydra |
| Binomial name | |
| †Bettongia anhydra H. H. Finlayson, 1957. [2] | |
Bettongia anhydra, also known as desert bettong, is a recently extinct species of potoroine marsupial.
A skull collected in the 1930s that was placed as Bettongia penicillata anhydra, and later regarded as a synonym of Bettongia lesueur . The first description was by Hedley Herbert Finlayson, published in 1957. [2] [3] An examination of morphology and molecular evidence proposed this specimen as the type of this new species. The type was collected from a fresh carcass at Lake Mackay in the western Northern Territory by Michael Terry in 1933. [4]
The phylogeny of the species separates this species and B. lesueur from lineages that emerged at a later period. [4]
A species of genus Bettongia , small to medium sized mammals that are usually nocturnal and fungivorous. The dentary of Bettongia anhydra resembles that of the Potorous species and those of the bettong genus. [4]
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