Cercartetus

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Cercartetus
Fossil range: Late Pleistocene - Recent
Cercartetus nanus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Burramyidae
Genus: Cercartetus
Gloger, 1841
Type species
Phalangista nana
(Desmarest, 1818)
Species

The genus Cercartetus is a group of very small pygmy possums. Four species comprise this genus, which together with the genus Burramys make up the marsupial family Burramyidae.[1]

It has occasionally been presumed that Cercaërtus was a mis-spelling or synonym of Cercartetus.[2][3] However, the name Cercaërtus is a junior synonym of Trichosurus and not of Cercartetus.[4][5][6][7]

Conservation International (CI) and the Indonesia Institute of Science (LIPI) reported on the possible discovery of a new species of Cercartetus pygmy possum upon visit to the Foja Mountains in June 2007.[8]

[edit] Species

[edit] References

  1. ^ Groves, Colin (16 November 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 44-45. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. 
  2. ^ Simpson, G.G. (1945). "The principles of classification and a classification of mammals.". Bulletin American Museum Natural History 85: 1–350. 
  3. ^ Grzimek, B. (1975). "Pygmy Possums", Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Volume 10. Mammals I. Melbourne: Van Nostrand Reinhold, p. 114. 
  4. ^ Iredale, T. and Troughton, E.L.G (1934). "A checklist of the mammals recorded from Australia". Australian Museum Memoir 6: 1–122. 
  5. ^ Wakefield, N.A. (1963). "The Australian pigmy possums". The Victorian Naturalist 80: 99–116. 
  6. ^ McKay, G.M. (1988). "Burramyidae", in Eds J.L. Bannister, J.H. Calaby, L.J. Dawson, J.K. Ling, J.A. Mahoney, G.M. McKay, B.J Richardson, W.D.L. Ride and D. W. Walton: Zoological Catalogue of Australia 5. Mammalia. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, pp. 98-102. 
  7. ^ Harris, J.M. (2006). "The discovery and early natural history of the eastern pygmy-possum, Cercartetus nanus (Geoffroy and Desmarest, 1817)". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 127: 107–124. 
  8. ^ Afp.google.com, Two new mammals found in Indonesian 'lost world': green group
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