Bluff Downs Bandicoot
Scientific name: Perameles allinghamensis
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Bluff Downs Bandicoot, Perameles allinghamensis - Lost kingdom 2004
Image: A Musser
© A Musser
© A Musser
Fast Facts
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Classification
- Genus
- Perameles
- Species
- allinghamensis
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- Size Range
- Length (head and body): up to 19cm
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View Fossil Record
- Fossil Record
- Pliocene Epoch
(5 million years ago - 1.8 million years ago)
Lived
4 million years ago, early Pliocene.
Description
The Bluff Downs Bandicoot looked for insects, fruit and soft roots to eat in the Pliocene woodlands. It probably dug holes using its front feet, searching for food in them with its long, pointed snout. Like other bandicoots it had long back feet. The Bluff Downs Bandicoot is one of the oldest known bandicoots of the kind known as peramelids. Peramelid bandicoots are still alive today.
Fossils
Fossil teeth of the Bluff Downs Bandicoot were found at Bluff Downs in north-eastern Queensland.
Did you know?
The female Bluff Downs Bandicoot probably had a short pregnancy, like living bandicoots. Some living bandicoots are pregnant for just 12 days, which is the shortest pregnancy known for any mammal.
