Mammals · Diprotodontia · Potoroidae

Desert Rat-kangaroo

Caloprymnus campestris

Extinct

No living individual remains anywhere in the world. See full glossary

The desert rat-kangaroo was a small marsupial of the deserts of central Australia, the only representative of its genus. It is one of the least known mammals in the world: it was described in 1841 from a handful of specimens and then vanished for ninety years, until in 1931 the naturalist Hedley Finlayson found it again in north-eastern South Australia. The last reliable sightings are from 1935. It lived in a shallow nest made of grass, without digging burrows, on bare, scorched plains.

Weight

600 g – 1.1 kg

Size

25 cm – 28 cm

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Impossible (extinct)

DesertHerbivore Nocturnal Solitary Desert Mammal

4countries 12parks2same family

Fun facts

fisiologíaIt can live its whole life without drinking, getting all the moisture it needs from metabolising the dry seeds it eats.
In 1931 Finlayson described how one individual ran for kilometres without any sign of tiring, leaving a horse at full gallop behind.
It is known only from a handful of specimens and from a few months of observations spread over almost a century: it disappeared before anyone could study it.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)
Habitat & environment: Gravel and clay plains of the central Australian desert
Litter / clutch size: 1

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caloprymnus_campestris