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The tammar wallaby (''Macropus eugenii''), also known as the dama wallaby or darma wallaby, is a small macropod native to South and Western Australia. Though its geographical range has been severely reduced since European colonisation, the tammar remains common within its reduced range and is listed as "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It has been introduced to New Zealand and reintroduced to some areas of Australia where it had been previously eradicated. Skull differences distinguish tammars from Western Australia, Kangaroo Island and mainland South Australia, making them distinct population groups or possibly different subspecies. About the size of a rabbit, the tammar is among the smallest of the wallabies in the genus ''Macropus''. Its coat colour is largely grey. The tammar has several notable adaptations, including the ability to retain energy while hopping, colour vision and the ability to drink seawater. A nocturnal species, it spends night time in grassland habitat and day time in shrubland. It is also very gregarious and has a seasonal, promiscuous mating pattern. A female tammar can nurse a joey in her pouch while keeping an embryo in her uterus. The tammar is a model species for research on marsupials, and on mammals in general. It is one of many organisms to have had its genome sequenced. ==Taxonomy and classification== }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} The tammar wallaby was seen in the Houtman Abrolhos off Western Australia by survivors of the 1628 ''Batavia'' shipwreck, and recorded by François Pelsaert in his 1629 ''Ongeluckige Voyagie''. It was first described in 1817 by the French naturalist Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest, who gave it the name ''eugenii'' based on where it was found; an island he knew as Ile Eugene in the Nuyts Archipelago off South Australia which is now known as St Peter Island. The island's French name was given in honour of Eugene Hamelin, commander of the ship ''Naturaliste'';〔 whose name is now the specific name of the tammar. The common name of the animal is derived from the thickets of the shrub locally known as tamma (''Allocasuarina campestris'') that sheltered it in Western Australia.〔 The tammar is classified together with the kangaroos, wallaroos and several species of wallaby in the genus ''Macropus'', and in the subgenus ''Notamacropus'' with the other wallabies, all of which have a facial stripe. Fossil evidence of the tammar wallaby exists from the late Pleistocene era—remains were found in the Naracoorte Caves.〔 The mainland and island dwelling tammars split from each other 7,000–15,000 years ago,〔 while the South Australian and Western Australian animals diverged around 50,000 years ago. The tammar wallabies on Flinders Island had greyer coats and thinner heads than the Kangaroo Island tammars, which are larger than the East and West Wallabi Islands animals. The island tammars were once thought to be a separate species from the mainland population.〔 A 1991 examination of tammar skulls from different parts of the species' range found that populations can be divided into three distinct groups; one group made of populations from mainland Western Australia, East and West Wallabi Islands, Garden Island and Middle Island; a second group comprising populations from Flinders Island, 19th century mainland Southern Australia and New Zealand; and a third group consisting solely of the Kangaroo Island population. The Western Australia Department of Environment and Conservation listed these populations as subspecies; ''M. e. derbianus'', ''M. e. eugenii'' and ''M. e. decres'' respectively.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tammar wallaby」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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