The woylie (Bettongia penicillata) may not have the name recognition of its more notorious cousin, the kangaroo. However, this small but mighty creature plays an important role in its home country, Australia.
The nocturnal marsupial can be found sifting through soil and turning over several tonnes of earth every year to snaffle mushrooms and fungi, earning it the mantle “ecosystem engineer.” Only what has been thought of as a woylie might not be one species but two. And there might be an entirely new species of bettong to boot. The catch: it is already thought to be extinct.
“Woylies are critically endangered marsupials that have been the focus of conservation efforts for decades,” lead author Jake Newman-Martin, a Ph.D. student at Curtin’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Australia, said in a press release. “In this new research, we’ve named a completely new species based on fossil material, and two new subspecies of woylies for the first time. Sadly, many of them have become extinct before we’ve even been aware of them.”
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The Woylie Subspecies
Bettong illustration by Nellie Pease
(Image Credit: Nellie Pease)
Researchers from Curtin University in Australia have analyzed the remains of over a hundred bettongs — a rat-like marsupial native to Australia, of which the woylie (or brush-tailed bettong) is one. Writing in the journal Zootaxa, the study’s authors note subtle differences in the teeth, skull, and bones that reveal the bettong’s family tree is a lot murkier than it previously seemed. Indeed, some of the morphological differences observed were distinct enough to suggest a delineation between species.
“This research confirmed several distinct species and expanded the known diversity of woylies by measuring skull and body fossil material that had previously not been looked at in detail,” co-author Kenny Travouillon, Curator of Terrestrial Zoology at the Western Australian Museum, said in a press release.
Based on this new research, the authors of the paper say the woylie subspecies Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi should be granted full species status, becoming B. ogilbyi. Doing so would make it a different species from the (now extinct) B. penicillata. Meanwhile, the team has identified new subspecies within the B. ogilbyi line — Bettongia ogilbyi sylvatica, Bettongia ogilbyi odontoploica, and Bettongia ogilbyi francisca.
The team also identified an entirely new species of bettong, which has since been named Bettongia haoucharae after Dalal Haouchar, whose work preceded and enabled its discovery. Unfortunately, the discovery came too late. Like B. penicillata, it is believed to be extinct.
What is known about B. haoucharae? Bones have been found in the cave deposits of Nullarbor (where the species is “fully abundant”) and in the southwestern deserts of Western Australia and South Australia. The study’s authors believe the species was adapted for arid environments and, like its relatives, foraged for food — though given the arid setting, it is unknown exactly what that food would have been.
It is thought the B. haoucharae went extinct during the 1920s, around the same time as the Perameles papillon and Dasycercus archeri — two other small, rat-like mammals — when foxes became more widespread in the region.
Protecting Living Species
The team plans to collect genetic data from different species of bettong in order to compare nuclear and mitochondrial DNA to the morphology described in the paper, resulting in a “full genetic and morphological taxonomic investigation.” The researchers also intend to work with Aboriginal peoples to decide on common names for the animals described in the paper.
While it may be too late to save the B. haoucharae and B. penicillata, Newman-Martin and his team hope the research will help efforts to protect living species, such as the B. o. ogilbyi and B. o. Sylvatica, both of which remain critically endangered.
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