Wombat
Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Infraclass: Marsupialia Order: Diprotodontia Suborder: Vombatiformes Family: Vombatidae
Description
Wombats are stocky, tailless, ursiform marsupials of the Linnaean taxonomic family Vombatidae. They are nocturnal, walk on four short legs, like to burrow, and are herbivorous.
The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) reaches about three feet in length and produces distinctive cubical scat[1]. There are also two or three (depending on classification) rare species of hairy-nosed wombats of the genus Lasiorhinus[2].
One of the distinctive features of wombats is that their pouch opens towards the rear of the animal, unlike most other marsupials. This avoids the problem of the pouch filling with dirt whilst the animal is burrowing.
Creationist Origins Hypothesis
After the Flood, representatives of the separately created wombat archaebaramin were among those animals that migrated from the Middle East to Australia as part of the Post-Diluvian Diasporas. There is debate whether this migration happened over land[3] -- as Australia was still for a time almost connected to Europe by land bridges similar to the one that connected Asia to America[4] -- or if they rafted on mats of vegetation torn up by the receding flood waters.[3] Creation researchers suggest that the wombat-specific design of its rear-opening pouch provides strong evidence for the wombat's special creation and against the evolutionists' Diprotodontian theory of wombat/kangaroo common ancestry[5].
References
- ↑ Review: The Wombat: Common Wombats in Australia by Barbara Triggs
- ↑ Wombat Information Center: Hairy Nosed Wombat
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "How did animals get from the Ark to isolated places, such as Australia?", ChristianAnswers.net.
- ↑ Batten, Don, et. al., 207, The Creation Answers Book, Chapter 17
- ↑ "Watches and Wombats", by Ken Ham, Institute for Creation Research