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Short-tailed Hopping Mouse

Notomys amplus
The last time anyone saw a Short-tailed Hopping Mouse was back in 1896, and everything that we know about this now-extinct desert Mouse comes from two specimens collected over a hundred years ago.

Did you know that there are, in fact, Hopping Mice? And no, they are not Marsupials (like many of the convergent evolution critters in Australia), they are Rodents that arrived from Asia around 5 million years ago.

The Short-tailed Hopping Mice and four of the other species in the genus went extinct during the 19th century. This is due to the spread of introduced predators like cats and dogs, and increased competition for food. All in all, half the species of Hopping Mice are extinct.

We know that the Short-tailed lived in the scrubs and dry grasslands of central Australia, and were the largest of the Hopping Mice. They had the long hind legs, sandy colored fur, and they fed on various seeds.
IUCN Status : Extinct
Location : Australia
Size : Weight up to 80g
Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Rodentia
Family : Muridae -- Genus : Notomys -- Species : N. amplus
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Comments

  1. KanekoDecember 7, 2012 at 4:22 PM

    such a shame to see and read about this extinct animals... in that pic it looks a bit like a mini kangaroo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hitesh patelDecember 9, 2012 at 5:36 AM

    ummmmm....very interesting info...i have no knowledge about this small animal

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2014 at 8:43 PM

    I SWEAR I SAW ONE TODAY! I live in N.Z so proberly not but it looks EXACTLY the same!

    ReplyDelete

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