Warendja

Warendja is an extinct genus of wombat. It is known from two species, W. encorensis from the Late Miocene Riversleigh site in Queensland,^[1] and W. wakefieldi known from the Pleistocene of South Australia, New South Wales,^[2] and Victoria.^[3] The two species are primarily distinguished by features of their enamel.^[1] It became extinct as part of the Quaternary extinction event.^{[3][2][4][5][6]} Warendja wakefieldi is estimated to have weighed about 10 kg, considerably smaller than living wombats.^[7] Warendja thought to be relatively basal amongst wombats,^[8] being the most primitive member to possess hypselodont (high crowned) cheek teeth. The morphology of the humerus of W. wakefieldi suggests that it engaged in scratch-digging.^[9]

Warendja Temporal range: Late Miocene—Late Pleistocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Marsupialia
Order:	Diprotodontia
Family:	Vombatidae
Genus:	†Warendja Hope and Wilkinson, 1982
Species
Warendja wakefieldi (Hope and Wilkinson, 1982) Warendja encorensis (Brewer et al., 2007)