Vombatus hacketti (Hackett's Wombat)

[surroundx]

Now known to have survived until at least 6.9-7.7 ka (Jankowski et al. 2016).

Source:

Jankowski, N. R., Gully, G. A., Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R. G. and Prideaux, G. J. (2016). A late Quaternary vertebrate deposit in Kudjal Yolgah Cave, south‐western Australia: refining regional late Pleistocene extinctions. Journal of Quaternary Science 31(5): 538-550.

[Peter]

Did it really survive until 6.9-7.7 ka? I don't see strong evidence for that it that paper (Jankowski et al. 2016).

It is mentioned in 'table 1' in 'unit 5'. The table says this unit/layer is aged 6.9-7.7 ka, but this species is also denoted with a 'dagger' in the same table, meaning that it became extinct during the Pleistocene. Strangely the dated samples KY2 (7,7 ka) and KY08-7 (6,9 ka) are both from the younger overlying unit 4 (see figure 3). It seems that Vombatus hackertti became extinct between 21 ka (unit 6) and 7,7 ka (unit 4). The paper also mentions that is became extinct before the Holocene (see page 547).

See the following quotes from the paper:

There was also a partial cranium of Vombatus hacketti embedded in Unit 5, the thick moonmilk layer overlying Unit 6.
...
We interpret a partial cranium of V. hacketti from Unit 5 as in situ; it sat on the surface of Unit 6, which is dated to 21 ka, and then became encased in moonmilk (Unit 5) after the solution pipe closed.
...
V. hacketti is the only Australian species known to have become extinct in Australia after 40 ka but before the Holocene.
...
Thylacinus cynocephalus disappeared during the mid-Holocene and V. hacketti became extinct between 21 and 7 ka, but none of the other 14 species has an unequivocal record in the south-west after 40 ka.
...
Vombatus hacketti survived to at least 21 ka, but there is no evidence for the remaining five megafaunal species in units younger than 41±
2 ka.

[surroundx]

Good question Peter. I only quickly looked at Table 1, and surmised that it was present during the Holocene. I think it is better to place it in the Late Pleistocene-Holocene border extinction forum?

[Melanie]

If 21 ka is correct it would fell outside the Holocene/Pleistocene border area.