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Phalangeroidea
The Phalangeroidea are a superfamily of mammals that include the families Burramyidae and Phalangeridae The Phalangeridae are a family of mostly nocturnal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Eastern Indonesia, including the cuscuses, brushtail possums, and their close relatives. Considered a type of possum, most species are arboreal, ..., as well as the extinct families Ektopodontidae and Miralinidae. They are mainly representatives of the possum marsupials. References Possums Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas {{Diprotodont-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas
Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appointed to the museum secretary's office in 1876, transferring to the zoological department in 1878. In 1891, Thomas married Mary Kane, daughter of Sir Andrew Clark, heiress to a small fortune, which gave him the finances to hire mammal collectors and present their specimens to the museum. He also did field work himself in Western Europe and South America. His wife shared his interest in natural history, and accompanied him on collecting trips. In 1896, when William Henry Flower took control of the department, he hired Richard Lydekker Richard Lydekker (; 25 July 1849 – 16 April 1915) was an English naturalist, geologist and writer of numerous books on natural history. Biography Richard Lydekker was born at Tavistock Square in London. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Pygmy Possum
The eastern pygmy possum (''Cercartetus nanus'') is a diprotodont marsupial of south-eastern Australia. Occurring from southern Queensland to eastern South Australia and also Tasmania, it is found in a range of habitats, including rainforest, sclerophyll forest, woodland and heath. Taxonomy and nomenclature The eastern pygmy possum is the type species of the genus ''Cercartetus'' (family Burramyidae), and was first described as ''Phalangista nana'' with the specific name meaning ‘dwarf’ in Latin. Currently, the authority for the specific name is widely accepted as Desmarest 1818, but in a review recently published, it was pointed out that an earlier version of Desmarest's account was published in 1817. Names synonymous with ''Cercartetus nanus'' are ''Phalangista glirifomis'' (Bell, 1828) and ''Dromicia britta'' (Wood Jones, 1925). These coincide with the two subspecies ''C. n. nanus'' (Desmarest, 1818) (the Tasmanian subspecies) and ''C. n. unicolor'' (Krefft, 1863) (the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burramyidae
The pygmy possums are a family of small possums that together form the marsupial family Burramyidae. The five extant species of pygmy possum are grouped into two genera. Four of the species are endemic to Australia, with one species also co-occurring in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Pygmy possums range in length from about , and usually weigh between . They are nocturnal and omnivorous, living on a diet of invertebrates, fruit, seed, nectar and pollen. They are excellent climbers, due in part to their prehensile tails. Although they cannot glide like some possums, some species can leap long distances. They have a prehensile tail for grabbing branches, but spend most of their time on the ground. Conservation International (CI) and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) reported the possible discovery of a new species of ''Cercartetus'' pygmy possum upon visit to the Foja Mountains in June 2007. The mountain pygmy possum is the only mammal restricted to the alpine and sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phalangeridae
The Phalangeridae are a family of mostly nocturnal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Eastern Indonesia, including the cuscuses, brushtail possums, and their close relatives. Considered a type of possum, most species are arboreal, and they inhabit a wide range of forest habitats from alpine woodland to eucalypt forest and tropical jungle. Many species have been introduced to various non-native habitats by humans for thousands of years. Characteristics Phalangerids are relatively large, compared with other possums. The smallest species, the Sulawesi dwarf cuscus, is cat-sized, averaging in length, while the largest, the black-spotted cuscus, is around long, and weighs . Besides the large size, other key features distinguishing phalangerids from other possums include the presence of bare skin on at least part of the tail, and low-crowned molar teeth. They have claws on the fore feet, but none on the hind feet, although these do have an opposable first toe to help ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ektopodontidae
''Ektopodon'' is an extinct genus of marsupial, and is the type genus of the family Ektopodontidae which occurred in forested environments in South Australia, Queensland and Victoria. The last species of this group went extinct in the early Pleistocene (between 2.588 million years ago and 781,000 years ago). Its body mass was estimated around 1300 grams. Scientists believe that ektopodontids were highly specialised seed-eating possums. The type species ''Ektopodon serratus'' describes material excavated at the Lake Ngapakaldi __NOTOC__ The Lake Ngapakaldi to Lake Palankarinna Fossil Area is a group of fossil sites located in the Australian state of South Australia within the Tirari Desert in the north-eastern part of the state's Far North region. The group has an ... fossil site in South Australia. References Prehistoric marsupial genera Prehistoric diprotodonts Riversleigh fauna Fossil taxa described in 1967 {{Diprotodont-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superfamily (biology)
In biological classification, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain. While older approaches to taxonomic classification were phenomenological, forming groups on the basis of similarities in appearance, organic structure and behaviour, methods based on genetic analysis have opened the road to cladistics. A given rank subsumes under it less general categories, that is, more specific descriptions of life forms. Above it, each rank is classified within more general categories of organisms and groups of organisms related to each other through inheritance of traits or features from common ancestors. The rank of any ''species'' and the description of its ''genus'' is ''basic''; which means that to identify a particular organism, it is usually not necessary to specify ranks other than these first two. Consider a particular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or hair, and three middle ear bones. These characteristics distinguish them from reptiles (including birds) from which they diverged in the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. Around 6,400 extant species of mammals have been described divided into 29 orders. The largest orders, in terms of number of species, are the rodents, bats, and Eulipotyphla (hedgehogs, moles, shrews, and others). The next three are the Primates (including humans, apes, monkeys, and others), the Artiodactyla ( cetaceans and even-toed ungulates), and the Carnivora (cats, dogs, seals, and others). In terms of cladistics, which reflects evolutionary history, mammals are the only living members of the Synapsida (synapsids); this clade, together with Saur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ektopodon
''Ektopodon'' is an extinct genus of marsupial, and is the type genus of the family Ektopodontidae which occurred in forested environments in South Australia, Queensland and Victoria. The last species of this group went extinct in the early Pleistocene (between 2.588 million years ago and 781,000 years ago). Its body mass was estimated around 1300 grams. Scientists believe that ektopodontids were highly specialised seed-eating possums. The type species ''Ektopodon serratus'' describes material excavated at the Lake Ngapakaldi __NOTOC__ The Lake Ngapakaldi to Lake Palankarinna Fossil Area is a group of fossil sites located in the Australian state of South Australia within the Tirari Desert in the north-eastern part of the state's Far North region. The group has an ... fossil site in South Australia. References Prehistoric marsupial genera Prehistoric diprotodonts Riversleigh fauna Fossil taxa described in 1967 {{Diprotodont-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Possums
Possum may refer to: Animals * Phalangeriformes, or possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi ** Common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula''), a common possum in Australian urban areas, invasive in New Zealand ** Common ringtail possum (''Pseudocheirus peregrinus''), also common in Australian urban areas, absent from New Zealand ** Phalangeridae (possums and cuscuses), a family of marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea containing most of the species referred to as "possums" in Australia * Opossum, or possum, an order (Didelphimorphia) of marsupials native to the Americas ** Common opossum, native to Central and South America ** Virginia opossum, native to North America People with the name * Possum Bourne (1956–2003), New Zealand rally car driver * George Jones (1931–2013), known as "The Possum", American country music singer * Possum Jones (1934-1997), American NASCAR driver * Clifford Possum Tjapaltjar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
