Phascolomys assimilis Krefft, 1872

Parnaby, Harry E., Ingleby, Sandy & Divljan, Anja, 2017, Type Specimens of Non-fossil Mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney, Records of the Australian Museum 69 (5), pp. 277-420 : 404

Phascolomys assimilis Krefft, 1872 i

The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (new series) XIII (614): 6 April p. 426, col. 2

Common name. The “Allied Wombat” of Krefft.

Current name. Vombatus ursinus ( Shaw, 1800) , following Groves (2005d), who notes that subspecies of ursinus are uncertain.

Possible Syntypes. Krefft’s original material for this taxon comprised several specimens in the AM in 1872. At least one was a skull and skeleton on public display, and there was also one or more skins. Probable syntypes include PA.786, destroyed in 1890 as it was “rotten” (presumably a skin) but whether it was a skin mount or skeleton is not recorded; PA.796, “NSW, flat [= unmounted] skeleton”; not yet sighted but a detailed inventory of skeletal collection has not been completed. Both were registered by Palmer in c. 1878 as “ Phascolomys assimilis ” and “N.S.W.”, with no additional data; the entries were not marked as types and with no mention of a link to Krefft .

Type locality. New South Wales, Australia.

Comments. The usual citation for this taxon is Krefft (1873d), i.e. his letter to the Zoological Society, dated June 1872, published in May 1873 and sometimes incorrectly cited as 1872. However, this is preceded by his newspaper account (Krefft, 1872i) which contained a detailed species description and provided useful background information not found in his later account. He specified cranial and dental differences between assimilis and other eastern NSW wombats that he regarded as “ platyrhinus ” but did not indicate whether photographs of wombat crania that accompanied his communication to London included any examples of assimilis . Krefft (1872j) provided drawings of the upper incisors of assimilis and “ platyrhinus ”.

Krefft (1872i) listed the total wombat holdings of the AM Collection of all species as: eight adult skins, six skeletons, 14 skulls and three young in alcohol, and implied that he had only a limited number of specimens that he assigned to assimilis . Less than a decade later, Palmer entered 25 wombat specimens in the Palmer Register that are a close match with Krefft’s list .

The two specimens listed above could either be syntypes if they were available to Krefft in or before 1872, or referred specimens assigned to assimilis by Krefft if they were obtained during the two years between publication of the name and his removal from the AM, in September 1874. It is likely that Secretary Palmer registered whatever species identification and data accompanied the specimens, and much less likely that Krefft’s nemesis and curatorial successor, Ramsay, whose main focus was birds, would have provided the taxonomic identifications for the wombats .