Dasyuridae

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Dasyurids
Tiger Quoll
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Marsupialia
Order: Dasyuromorphia
Family: Dasyuridae
Goldfuss, 1820
Subfamilies & Tribes

Dasyurinae

Sminthopsinae

The marsupial family Dasyuridae includes 61 species divided into 15 genera. Members of this family are found in Australia and New Guinea. Many are small and mouse-like, giving them the misnomer marsupial mice.

Dasyurids range in size from roughly from 5 or 6 gm to 8 kg. Despite their variation in size, most are similar in shape, with a moderately long body, long pointed head, long and usually fairly well-furred tail, and short to medium-length legs. The tail is not prehensile. The feet are not syndactylous (that is, the second and third toes are not fused), and the animals walk with the entire surface of their feet on the ground (plantigrade). Arboreal species have a small but mobile hallux on the hind foot, but this toe tends to be reduced or absent in terrestrial species. The hind foot of terrestrial species also tends to be longer than that of arboreal species. Many dasyurids lack a pouch; in these species, the teats are arranged on a circular patch of skin on the abdomen. Some that lack a pouch have folds along the sides of the abdomen that give young some protection. The stomach of dasyurids is a simple sac.

The skull of dasyurids is didelphid-like in appearance, but it include 4 upper and 3 lower incisors on each side of the jaw rather than 5/4 as in didelphids. The canines are well developed and have a sharp edge; the premolars (2 or 3 upper and lower on each side) are blade-like; and the molars (4 upper and lower) are tuberculosectorial, often with sharp cusps for shearing. The palatal vacuities that characterize most marsupials are reduced or absent in some species.

Dasyurids are primarily carnivorous and insectivorous.

[edit] Classification

Taxonomists divide the family into two living subfamilies, each with two tribes as shown below. Recent research has reorganized this taxonomy, but evidence for the cohesiveness of the entire group is strong.

[edit] References

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