Bettongia

Bettongia View in CoL o. francisca

The subspecies Bettongia penicillata francisca has never been formaly synonomised but is generally recognised as invalid. Our results indicate that B. p. francisca is a valid subspecies, with the taxon displaying significant difference in the one-way PERMANOVAS ( Table 1-12). However, our results indicate that the specimens are closer morphologically to Bettongia ogilbyi ogilbyi , with an overlap present in the PCA analysis (Fig. 4 & 5). The authors acknowledge it is possible that this is a case of convergent evolution, wherein the specimens from St. Francis Island have similar dental morphology to B. o. ogilbyi due to similar diet. However, in all PCA analyses conducted, the subspecies did not overlap with B. penicillata , and consistently overlapped with B. o. ogilbyi . As such, we assign the St. Francis Island taxon to Bettongia ogilbyi francisca , until genetic testing can supplement the morphological work presented here. The authors would like to note that modern translocated Bettongia specimens from St. Francis Island were identified herein as B. o. ogilbyi . Notoriously, these translocated populations of Bettongs could not survive ( Robinson et al. 1996), indicating that B. o. francisca was uniquely adapted to the conditions present. Additionally, other B. o. francisca subfossil specimens from St. Francis Island were identified and morphologically matched to the holotype specimen, indicating the species did indeed occur on the island as proposed by Finlayson (1957).