Dunnart | |
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White-footed dunnart (Sminthopsis leucopus) | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
Order: | Dasyuromorphia |
Family: | Dasyuridae |
Subfamily: | Sminthopsinae |
Tribe: | Sminthopsini |
Genus: | Sminthopsis Thomas, 1887 |
Type species | |
Phascogale crassicaudata Gould, 1844
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Species | |
23, see text |
Dunnart (from Noongar donat[1]) is a common name for species of the genus Sminthopsis, narrow-footed marsupials the size of a European mouse. They have a largely insectivorous diet.
Taxonomy
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/Fat-tailed_Dunnart_%28Sminthopsis_crassicaudata%29_%2814559441713%29.jpg/220px-Fat-tailed_Dunnart_%28Sminthopsis_crassicaudata%29_%2814559441713%29.jpg)
The genus name Sminthopsis was published by Oldfield Thomas in 1887, the author noting that the name Podabrus that had previously been used to describe the species was preoccupied as a genus of beetles.[2] The type species is Phascogale crassicaudata, published by John Gould in 1844.
There are 19 species,[note 1] all of which occur in Australia and New Guinea:[3]
- Genus Sminthopsis
- S. crassicaudata species-group
- S. macroura species-group
- S. granulipes species-group
- S. griseoventer species-group
- S. longicaudata species-group
- S. murina species-group
- S. psammophila species-group
The genus is referred to by their common name of dunnarts.
Description
[edit]A male dunnart's Y chromosome is the smallest known mammalian Y chromosome.[4]
Notes
[edit]- ^ The list is based on the Third edition of Wilson & Reeder's Mammal Species of the World (2005) except where both the Mammal Diversity Database and IUCN agree on the change.
References
[edit]- ^ Abbott, Ian (2001). "Aboriginal names of mammal species in south-west Western Australia" (PDF). CALMScience. 3 (4): 450–451.
- ^ Divljan, Anja; Ingleby, Sandy; Parnaby, Harry (6 January 2015). "Taxonomic status of Podabrus albocaudatus Krefft, 1872 and declaration of Sminthopsis granulipes Troughton, 1932 (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae) as a protected name for the White-tailed Dunnart from Western Australia". Zootaxa. 3904 (2): 283–292. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3904.2.7. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 25660785. S2CID 30027103.
- ^ "Sminthopsis longicaudata". WA Museum Collections. 2017-02-14. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
- ^ Toder R.; Wakefield M.J.; Graves J.A.M. (2000). "The minimal mammalian Y chromosome - the marsupial Y as a model system". Cytogenet Cell Genet. 91 (1–4): 285–92. doi:10.1159/000056858. PMID 11173870. S2CID 30401023.