[1] The description for a new species of Riversleigh fauna was published in 2014, the authors proposing the specific epithet for the resemblance to the modern peramelid family of bandicoot and the generic term "crash" for the unexpected appearance of the taxon at a Riversleigh site from the Miocene epoch.

[1] A genus known by a single species, Crash bandicoot is recognised as an early representative of a peramelid lineage that separated from the Chaeropodidae, a family represented by the modern pig-footed bandicoots Chaeropus, and Thylacomyidae family of the extant bilby genus Macrotis.

[1] The distribution of Crash bandicoot is restricted to Riversleigh, an area rich in series of well preserved fossil mammals.

The only known location of specimens is the Alan's Ledge 1990 Site (AL90) at Riversleigh, at one time a cave.

The fauna discovered at the same site support the evidence of a local wet rainforest environment, and finding evidence of the still present bandicoot lineage at this early period implies that they first diversified in an area subject to an increasingly arid climate as the continent moved toward the equator.