Ancient wombats differed in size because of sex: 24-06-2008
Ancient wombats that roamed through Australia varied in size but they were thought to belong to the same species, a report has claimed.
According to a new study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, ancient wombats - despite their varying sizes - were of the same species.
Some wombats could measure up to three metres in length and nearly two metres in height while weighing as much as a pickup truck.
Others would weigh as much as a small car and these differences were not down to different species, but down to gender.
Gilbert Price, a palaeontologist at the University of Queensland, said that the study examined the teeth of ancient wombats to discover if they were all one species.
Teeth usually look the same if the species is the same because they eat the same type of foods.
Scientists working on the study found that there was just a single giant wombat species and previous claims had mistaken a difference in species for two wombats of different sex.
Today, wombats are about a metre long and can be found through much of southern Australia, National Geographic reports.