Numbat-Banded Anteater Skull Replica

Description

Numbat-Banded Anteater Skull Replica measures 2.5 inches. Numbat-Banded Anteater Skull Replica is museum quality replica polyurethane cast. Made in USA. Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home decor skull, or office decor skull. 2-part skull (separate cranium & jaw).

The Numbat-Banded Anteater, Noombat, Walpurti or Myrmecobius fasciatus is an insectivorous marsupial native to Western Australia and recently re-introduced to South Australia. The species is also known as noombat or walpurti.

The Numbat-Banded Anteater or Myrmecobius fasciatus diet consists almost exclusively of termites. The numbat is a small, colorful creature between 14 and 18 in. long, including the tail, with a finely pointed muzzle and a prominent, bushy tail about the same length as its body. Color varies considerably, from soft grey to reddish-brown, often with an area of brick red on the upper back, and always with a black stripe running from the tip of the muzzle through the eyes to the bases of the small, round-tipped ears. Between four and eleven white stripes cross the animal’s hindquarters, which gradually become fainter towards the mid-back. The underside is cream or light grey, while the tail is covered with long, grey hair flecked with white.

Unlike most other marsupials, the Numbat-Banded Anteater or Myrmecobius fasciatus is diurnal, largely because of the constraints of having a specialized diet without having the usual physical equipment for it. Most ecosystems with a generous supply of termites have a fairly large creature with powerful forelimbs bearing heavy claws. Numbats are not large, and they have five toes on the fore feet, and four on the hind feet.

Like other mammals that eat termites or ants, the numbat or Myrmecobius fasciatus has a degenerate jaw with up to 50 very small, nonfunctional teeth, and although it is able to chew, rarely does so, because of the soft nature of its diet. Uniquely among terrestrial mammals, the Myrmecobius fasciatus has an additional cheek tooth is located between the premolars and molars; whether this represents a supernumerary molar tooth or a deciduous tooth retained into adult life is unclear.

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