Vombatiformes [SEP] parent taxon
Vombatiformes
The Vombatiformes are one of the three suborders of the large marsupial order Diprotodontia. Five of the seven known families within this suborder are extinct; only the families Phascolarctidae, with the koala, and Vombatidae, with three extant species of wombat, survive.
Among the extinct families are the Diprotodontidae, which includes "Diprotodon", believed by many to be the inspiration for the bunyip. "Vombatiformes" is neo-Latin for "wombat-shaped things", and took its name from its type family.
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of