RARE MARSUPIAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17747, 6 April 1932, Page 5

RARE MARSUPIAL

FIND IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA ONLY THREE SPECIMENS KNOWN Dr. 11. 11. Finlayson, of the Adelaide Gniversity, who is the honorary curator of mammals at the Adelaide Museum, recently returned from the interior of the State with specimens of Caloprymnus campesl i-is, the rat-kangaroo of the plains, one of the larest and least known of Australian marsupials. No sjneeimeii has been taken for almost 100 years, and it was believed to be extinct. Only three specimens were known previously; these are all in the British Museum. Professor F. Wood Jones, of the University of Melbourne, who was previously professor of comparative anatomy at Adelaide, said that the rediscovery of Caloprymnus was of considerable importance. 'riie only previous record of it was by ■Gould, who sent three specimens lo the British Museum in 1843. Nothing more had been heard of it until 1876, but the specimen seen then was not captured, and it was doubtful whether the record was authentic. Since then the animal had been regarded as extinct. No Australian museum possessed a specimen.

The dramatic, reappearance of very i a re. Australian animals. Professor Junes raid, was not unique. Several years ago bandicoots had been discovered in the. Mount Lofty Ranges, near Adelaide, where this animal had been regarded as extinct for 30 years, although it was found in other Stales. The native cat in Victoria was also reappearing after having been very rare for many years.