An overlooked, early record of the desert rat-kangaroo (Caloprymnus campestris) from Lake Killalpaninna, South Australia
Karl Vernes A C , Sandy Ingleby B and Mark D. B. Eldridge BA Ecosystem Management, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.
B Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: kvernes@une.edu.au
Australian Mammalogy 42(2) 223-225 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM18043
Submitted: 14 October 2018 Accepted: 20 August 2019 Published: 18 September 2019
Abstract
The desert rat-kangaroo (Caloprymnus campestris) is known from specimens collected at just a few localities in north-eastern South Australia. We examined a C. campestris skin (M21674) in the collection of the Australian Museum, that was collected by Henry James Hillier at Lake Killalpaninna in South Australia between 1902 and 1905. This is a new locality for C. campestris, and the most southerly recorded. Furthermore, it precedes Hedley Herbert Finlayson’s rediscovery of the desert rat-kangaroo in 1931 by more than 25 years.
Additional keywords: Cooper Creek, Lake Eyre Basin, macropodoid, marsupial, ngurlakanta, oolacunta, Potoroidae, Sturt Stony Desert, Tirari Desert
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