{"id":29194,"date":"2025-09-05T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T01:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=media-release&#038;p=29194"},"modified":"2025-09-05T11:17:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T03:17:59","slug":"new-research-uncovers-a-ghost-of-the-australian-bush","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/new-research-uncovers-a-ghost-of-the-australian-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"New research uncovers a \u2018ghost\u2019 of the Australian bush"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A new species of a native bushland marsupial \u2013 closely related to the kangaroo \u2013 has been discovered but is already likely extinct, new <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.11646\/zootaxa.5690.1.1\">research<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Analysing fossils collected from caves of the Nullarbor and southwest Australia, researchers from Â鶹ֱ²¥, the Western Australian Museum and Murdoch University uncovered a completely new species of bettong as well as two new subspecies of woylie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"New research uncovers a \u2018ghost\u2019 of the Australian bush\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c-SXN3jW5BQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Woylies are ecosystem engineers capable of turning over several tonnes of earth each year in search for their favourite mushroom treats. The cute kangaroo relatives, native to Western Australia, are the country\u2019s most translocated mammal because they are moved as part of conservation efforts to save the critically endangered species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lead author Mr Jake Newman-Martin, a PhD student in Curtin\u2019s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said the discovery unlocked vital clues about the diversity of woylies, also known as brush-tailed bettong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWoylies are critically endangered marsupials that have been the focus of conservation efforts for decades,\u201d Mr Newman-Martin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn this new research, we\u2019ve 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\u2019ve even been aware of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur results split the critically endangered woylie into two living subspecies, which is very important for conservation when we\u2019re considering breeding and translocation initiatives to increase the size and fitness of populations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-author Dr Kenny Travouillon, Curator of Terrestrial Zoology at &nbsp;the Western Australian Museum, said researchers used bone measurements to assess the diversity of woylies and the number of species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis 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,\u201d Dr Travouillon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019ve found through this research tells us that examining fossils alongside genetic tools could offer significant insights that may help conservation efforts of this critically endangered native species.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scientific name of the new Nullarbor species has been described as <em>Bettongia haoucharae<\/em> but the researchers will work with Indigenous people to identify an appropriate collaborative name given woylie is a Noongar word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The research examined specimens from the Western Australian Museum, South Australia Museum, Australian Museum, Queensland Museum, Museums Victoria, Flinders University research collection, Natural History Museum London, and Oxford University Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The full paper, titled \u2018<em>A taxonomic revision of the Bettongia penicillata (Diprotodontia: Potoroidae) species complex and description of the subfossil species Bettongia haoucharae sp. nov.<\/em>\u2019, was published in <em>Zootaxa<\/em> and can be viewed online <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.11646\/zootaxa.5690.1.1\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new species of a native bushland marsupial \u2013 closely related to the kangaroo \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4457,"featured_media":29195,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"4997,4792,5468,5779,5670,5504","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":277,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,277],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-29194","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-science-and-environment"],"acf":{"experts":false,"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":[22646,24388]},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bettong-head-illustration-by-Nellie-Pease-1740x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Jeremic","display_name":"Samuel Jeremic"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/29194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/29194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29194"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=29194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}