Peramelidae

Summary

The marsupial family Peramelidae contains the extant bandicoots. They are found throughout Australia and New Guinea, with at least some species living in every available habitat, from rainforest to desert. Four fossil peramelids are described. One known extinct species of bandicoot, the pig-footed bandicoot, was so different from the other species, it was recently moved into its own family.

Peramelidae
Temporal range: Miocene - Recent
An eastern barred bandicoot
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Peramelemorphia
Family: Peramelidae
Gray, 1825
Type genus
Perameles
Geoffroy, 1804
Subfamilies and genera

Peramelinae

Peroryctinae

Echymiperinae

Characteristics edit

Peramelids are small marsupials, ranging in size from the mouse bandicoot, which is 15–17.5 cm long, to the giant bandicoot, which at 39–56 cm in length and up 4.7 kg in weight, is about the size of a rabbit. They have short limbs and tails, smallish, mouse-like ears, and a long, pointed snout.[1]

Peramelids are omnivorous, with soil-dwelling invertebrates forming the major part of their diet; they also eat seeds, fruit, and fungi. Their teeth are correspondingly unspecialised, with most species having the dental formula 5.1.3.43.1.3.4

Female peramelids have a pouch that opens to the rear and contains eight teats. The maximum litter size is, therefore, eight, since marsupial young are attached to the teat during development, although two to four young per litter is a more typical number. The gestation period of peramelids is the shortest among mammals, at just 12.5 days, the young are weaned around two months of age, and reach sexual maturity at just three months. This allows a given female to produce more than one litter per breeding season and gives peramelids an unusually high reproductive rate compared with other marsupials.[1]

Classification edit

Upham et al. 2019[2][3]
Peramelidae
Álvarez-Carretero et al. 2022[4][5]

The listing for extant species is based on The Third edition of Wilson & Reeder's Mammal Species of the World (2005), except where the Mammal Diversity Database and IUCN agree on a change.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b Gordon, Greg (1984). Macdonald, D. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File. pp. 846–849. ISBN 0-87196-871-1.
  2. ^ Upham, Nathan S.; Esselstyn, Jacob A.; Jetz, Walter (2019). "Inferring the mammal tree Species-level sets of phylogenies for questions in ecology, evolution, and conservation". PLOS Biology. 17 (12): e3000494. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3000494. PMC 6892540.
  3. ^ Upham, Nathan S.; Esselstyn, Jacob A.; Jetz, Walter (2019). "DR_on4phylosCompared_linear_richCol_justScale_ownColors_withTips_80in" (PDF). PLOS Biology. 17 (12). doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3000494.
  4. ^ Álvarez-Carretero, Sandra; Tamuri, Asif U.; Battini, Matteo; Nascimento, Fabrícia F.; Carlisle, Emily; Asher, Robert J.; Yang, Ziheng; Donoghue, Philip C.J.; dos Reis, Mario (2022). "A species-level timeline of mammal evolution integrating phylogenomic data". Nature. 602 (7896): 263–267. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04341-1. hdl:1983/de841853-d57b-40d9-876f-9bfcf7253f12.
  5. ^ Álvarez-Carretero, Sandra; Tamuri, Asif U.; Battini, Matteo; Nascimento, Fabrícia F.; Carlisle, Emily; Asher, Robert J.; Yang, Ziheng; Donoghue, Philip C.J.; dos Reis, Mario (2022). "4705sp_colours_mammal-time.tree". Nature (602): 263–267. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04341-1. hdl:1983/de841853-d57b-40d9-876f-9bfcf7253f12.
  6. ^ Travouillon, K.J.; et al. (2014). "Earliest modern bandicoot and bilby (Marsupialia, Peramelidae and Thylacomyidae) from the Miocene of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland, Australia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 34 (2): 375–382. Bibcode:2014JVPal..34..375T. doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.799071. S2CID 85622058.
  7. ^ "The real Crash bandicoot!, Laura Soul". Archived from the original on 2016-02-13. Retrieved 2015-11-08.
  8. ^ Travouillon & Phillips (2018). "Total evidence analysis of the phylogenetic relationships of bandicoots and bilbies (Marsupialia: Peramelemorphia): Reassessment of two species and description of a new species" Zootaxa. February 2018.
  • Groves, C. P. (2005). Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 39–42. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. OCLC 62265494.
  • Schwartz, L.R. (2006). "A new species of bandicot from the Oligocene of Northern Australia and implications for correlating Australian Tertiary mammal faunas". Palaeontology. 49 (5): 991–998. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00584.x. S2CID 84073016.

External links edit

  • Gordon, G.; Hulbert, A.J. (1989). "Part 24:Peramelidae". Fauna of Australia Volume 1B Mammalia (PDF). Canberra, Australia: AGPS. ISBN 978-0-644-06056-1. Retrieved 12 February 2011. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)