Ogilby submitted a drawing by collector Major Mitchell, who also supplied extensive remarks on the animal's form and habits, and identified the unusual pig-like toes of the forelimbs as the basis for a new genus.

[2] The genus name Chaeropus combines terms from Ancient Greek for "pig" and "foot", a reference to the unique characteristic of the forelimbs noted by the describing author.

The specific epithet ecaudatus refers to the absence of a tail, which the single specimen happened to be missing, leading to the unfortunate suggestion by the name that the marsupial did not possess them.

[7] Oldfield Thomas noted the inappropriate epithet ecaudatus in 1888, substituting the name Chœropus castanotis proposed by John Edward Gray as the type of the genus,[8] but this was suppressed as a synonym by Palmer.

[15] The arrangement within the Marsupialia, with the treatment proposed in the 2019 revision, may be summarised as: A genus of Peramelemorphia order of marsupials, allied by a monophyletic family, and regarded as exceptional in their morphology.

The forefeet had two functional toes with hooves, similar to the cloven hoof of a pig or deer;[19] this is possibly due to juveniles being deposited in the pouch through external stalks, thus relieving them of using the forelimbs while as joeys.

An unpublished illustration by Richter, under the direction of Gould, was discovered in the archives of Knowsley Hall, at one time home to a great patron of natural history, the Earl of Derby.

[16] Historical records of collections in central and western Australia, where it was sometimes locally common, begin with a specimen obtained at the Peron Peninsula during the Uranie expedition led by Louis de Freycinet in 1818.

John Gilbert recorded his observations at dense stands of Casuarina seedlings (Allocasuarina species) at the interior of the southwest, beyond Northam, but did not appear in the Avon valley, inland from the new colony at Perth, at new settlements near Toodyay, York, and the Wongan Hills area.

Despite actively searching and collecting information on this animal, the species was not recorded by John Tunney, George Masters, or Guy Shortridge in their extensive surveys of western regions during the subsequent decades.

[25] The last record of Chaeropus in the Southwest Australian region was in 1898, at Youndegin, consistent with the disappearance of species in a critical weight range that succumbed to Australia's mammalian faunal collapse (1875–1925).

[27] The appearance in the fossil fauna of eastern Queensland sites demonstrates the replacement of rainforest communities with the open grassy habitat favoured by this genus during the later Pleistocene.

[29] Explorer Samuel Albert White was shown the tracks of the animal in 1921 and gained information on its habitat, being found on stony tablelands or at sand dunes in central Australia, and was able to capture one with the assistance of a local Aboriginal woman and her dogs.

[34] The cause of the extinction remains uncertain; neither of the two most destructive introduced exterminator species, the fox and the rabbit, had yet arrived in south-west Western Australia when the pig-footed bandicoots disappeared from that area.

Secondly, following on the heels of the near-extermination of the Aborigines, came the introduction of vast numbers of sheep and cattle, leading to significant changes in soil structure, plant growth, and food availability.

[citation needed] The species was included in historical modelling of a disease outbreak, a theorised epizootic that was the primary cause of mammalian declines, to which the populations of Chaeropus would seem to have been highly susceptible.

The sudden demise of these marsupials was noted by Hal Colebatch, writing in 1929 that the disappearance was not the result of direct actions of settlers, but an unexplained consequence of a natural event.

[36] Few naturalists had the opportunity to observe and document the behaviour of the two species, with one of the few existing accounts suggesting that it moved "like a broken-down hack in a canter, apparently dragging the hind quarters after it".

[37] This is contradicted by the Aboriginal people of central Australia, who knew it well and reported that if disturbed, it was capable of running with considerable speed by breaking into a smooth, galloping sprint.

Chaeropus species moved with a distinctive gait, exaggerated by their proportionally long and slender limbs that resemble a large grazing mammal like the African antelope.