0 a type of marsupial that lives in Australia and that looks like a rat with grey fur and long ears --
The large numbers of rats attract feral cats to the area which pose a threat to the bilby.
Less well-known species of marsupials include the numbat, bandicoots, bettongs, the bilby, quolls, and the quokka.
A feature of the park is a 25 square km bilby enclosure surrounded by a predator proof fence.
Prior to this discovery, the oldest bilby fossil on record was 5 million years old.
The story helped catalyze the public's interest in saving the bilby.
The female bilby's pouch faces backwards, which prevents her pouch from getting filled with dirt while she is digging.
In 2014 scientists found part of a fossilised jaw of a bilby which had shorter teeth likely used for eating forest fruit.
Introduced feral cats and foxes pose a major threat to the bilby's survival, and there is some competition between bilbies and rabbits for food.
