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Carnivorous Marsupial
Dasyuromorphia (, meaning "hairy tail" in Greek) is an order comprising most of the Australian carnivorous marsupials, including quolls, dunnarts, the numbat, the Tasmanian devil, and the thylacine. In Australia, the exceptions include the omnivorous bandicoots (order Peramelemorphia) and the marsupial moles (which eat meat but are very different and are now accorded an order of their own, Notoryctemorphia). Numerous South American species of marsupials (orders Didelphimorphia, Paucituberculata, and Microbiotheria) are also carnivorous, as were some extinct members of the order Diprotodontia, including extinct kangaroos (such as ''Ekaltadeta'' and ''Propleopus)'' and thylacoleonids, and some members of the partially extinct clade Metatheria and all members of the extinct superorder Sparassodonta. The order contains four families: one with just a single living species (the numbat), two with only extinct species (including the thylacine and ''Malleodectes''), and one, the Dasyu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thylacine
The thylacine ( , or , also ) (''Thylacinus cynocephalus'') is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. The last known live animal was captured in 1930 in Tasmania. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger (because of its striped lower back) or the Tasmanian wolf (because of its canid-like characteristics). Various Aboriginal Tasmanian names have been recorded, such as ''coorinna'', ''kanunnah'', ''cab-berr-one-nen-er'', ''loarinna'', ''laoonana'', ''can-nen-ner'' and ''lagunta'', while ''kaparunina'' is used in Palawa kani. The thylacine was relatively shy and nocturnal, with the general appearance of a medium-to-large-size canid, except for its stiff tail and abdominal pouch similar to that of a kangaroo. Because of convergent evolution, it displayed an anatomy and adaptations similar to the tiger (''Panthera tigris'') and wolf (''Canis lupus'') of the Northern Hemisphere, such as dark trans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omnivorous
An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutrients and energy of the sources absorbed. Often, they have the ability to incorporate food sources such as algae, fungi, and bacteria into their diet. Omnivores come from diverse backgrounds that often independently evolved sophisticated consumption capabilities. For instance, dogs evolved from primarily carnivorous organisms (Carnivora) while pigs evolved from primarily herbivorous organisms (Artiodactyla). Despite this, physical characteristics such as tooth morphology may be reliable indicators of diet in mammals, with such morphological adaptation having been observed in bears. The variety of different animals that are classified as omnivores can be placed into further sub-categories depending on their feeding behaviors. Frugivores ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monito Del Monte
The monito del monte or colocolo opossum, ''Dromiciops gliroides'', also called ''chumaihuén'' in Mapudungun, is a diminutive marsupial native only to southwestern South America (Argentina and Chile). It is the only extant species in the ancient order Microbiotheria, and the sole New World representative of the superorder Australidelphia (all other New World marsupials are members of the paraphyletic Ameridelphia). The species is nocturnal and arboreal, and lives in thickets of South American mountain bamboo in the Valdivian temperate rain forests of the southern Andes, aided by its partially prehensile tail. It eats primarily insects and other small invertebrates, supplemented with fruit. Taxonomy and etymology ''Dromiciops gliroides'' is the sole extant member of the order Microbiotheria. It was first described by British zoologist Oldfield Thomas in 1894. The generic name ''Dromiciops'' is based on the resemblance of the monito del monte to the eastern pygmy possum (''Cerca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long-tailed Planigale
The long-tailed planigale (''Planigale ingrami''), also known as Ingram's planigale or the northern planigale, is the smallest of all marsupials, and one of the smallest of all mammals. It is rarely seen but is a quite common inhabitant of the blacksoil plains, clay-soiled woodlands, and seasonally flooded grasslands of Australia's Top End. Taxonomy The long-tailed planigale was described in 1906 by Oldfield Thomas, who placed it in the genus ''Phascogale''. The species was moved in 1928 by Ellis Le Geyt Troughton, who created the genus ''Planigale'' for it and the other then-known species, the common planigale (''P. maculata''), and described the narrow-nosed planigale (''P. tenuirostris''). The species has since suffered some taxonomic confusion, having been referred to as ''Planigale subtilissima''; there has also been some confusion concerning subspecies. Currently, three subspecies are recognised: *''P. i. ingrami'', found in the Northern Territory to Townsville, Queensland; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sparassodonta
Sparassodonta (from Ancient Greek, Greek ['], to tear, rend; and , gen. [', '], tooth) is an extinct order (biology), order of carnivore, carnivorous metatherian mammals native to South America, related to modern marsupials. They were once considered to be true marsupials, but are now thought to be a separate side branch that split before the last common ancestor of all modern marsupials. A number of these mammalian predators closely resemble placental predators that evolved separately on other continents, and are cited frequently as examples of convergent evolution. They were first described by Florentino Ameghino, from fossils found in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. Sparassodonts were present throughout South America's long period of "splendid isolation" during the Cenozoic; during this time, they shared the niches for large warm-blooded predators with the flightless Phorusrhacidae, terror birds. Previously, it was thought that these mammals died out in the face of competit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metatheria
Metatheria is a mammalian clade that includes all mammals more closely related to marsupials than to placentals. First proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1880, it is a more inclusive group than the marsupials; it contains all marsupials as well as many extinct non-marsupial relatives. There are three extant subclasses of mammals, one being metatherians: #monotremes: egg laying mammals like the platypus and the echidna, #metatheria: marsupials, which includes three American orders ( Didelphimorphia, Paucituberculata and Microbiotheria) and four Australasian orders (Notoryctemorphia, Dasyuromorphia, Peramelemorphia and Diprotodontia), and the # eutherians: placental mammals, consisting of four superorders divided into 21 orders. Metatherians belong to a subgroup of the northern tribosphenic mammal clade or Boreosphenida. They differ from all other mammals in certain morphologies like their dental formula, which includes about five upper and four lower incisors, a canine, three pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thylacoleonidae
Thylacoleonidae is a family of extinct meat-eating marsupials from Australia, referred to as marsupial lions. The best known is ''Thylacoleo carnifex'', also called the marsupial lion. The clade ranged from the Late Oligocene to the Pleistocene, with some species the size of a possum and others as large as that of a leopard. As a whole, they were largely arboreal, in contrast to the mostly terrestrial dasyuromorphs (quolls only recently took the niches vacated by small thylacoleonids), monitor lizards and mekosuchines. Hypercarnivory was also found in another order of marsupials, the dasyuromorph family Thylacinidae that included the Tasmanian tiger ''Thylacinus cynocephalus'' that became extinct in the twentieth century. Description A diprotodontian family allied to the Vombatiformes, mammals that radiated and diversified in the Oligocene to Miocene. The thylacoleonid genera exhibit specialised dentition that allowed them to kill prey larger than themselves. The earliest d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propleopus
''Propleopus'' is an extinct genus of marsupials. Three species are known: ''P. chillagoensis'' from the Plio-Pleistocene, and ''P. oscillans'' and ''P. wellingtonensis'' from the Pleistocene. In contrast to most other kangaroos, and similar to their small extant relative, the musky rat-kangaroo, they were probably omnivorous. The species assigned to this genus are: *''Propleopus chillagoensis'' Archer ''et al.'', 1978 *''Propleopus oscillans'' (De Vis, 1888) (type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...) *''Propleopus wellingtonensis'' (Archer & Flannery, 1985) References *John A. Long et al.: ''Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea''. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2003, . * THE GIANT RAT-KANGAROO PROPLEOPUS OSCILLANS (DE VIS) Preh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ekaltadeta
''Ekaltadeta'' is an extinct genus of marsupials related to the modern musky rat-kangaroos. ''Ekaltadelta'' was present in what is today the Riversleigh formations in Northern Queensland from the Late Oligocene to the Miocene. They are hypothesized to have been either exclusively carnivorous, or omnivorous with a fondness for meat, based on their chewing teeth. This conclusion is based mainly on the size and shape of a large buzz-saw-shaped cheek-tooth, the adult third premolar, which is common to all ''Ekaltadeta''. A few specimens actually did also have long predatory "fangs". Fossils of the animals include two near complete skulls, and numerous upper and lower jaws. Taxonomy The description of a new species and genus was published by Mike Archer and Tim Flannery in 1985. The type species is '' Ekaltadeta ima''. It was originally put within the family of Potoroidae, but like the musky rat-kangaroo, the genus was moved to the family Hypsiprymnodontidae. The name ''Ekaltadet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diprotodontia
Diprotodontia (, from Greek language, Greek "two forward teeth") is the largest extant order (biology), order of marsupials, with about 155 species, including the kangaroos, Wallaby, wallabies, Phalangeriformes, possums, koala, wombats, and many others. Extinct diprotodonts include the hippopotamus-sized ''Diprotodon'', and ''Thylacoleo'', the so-called "marsupial lion". Characteristics Living diprotodonts are almost all herbivores, as were most of those that are now extinct. A few insectivore, insectivorous and omnivore, omnivorous diprotodonts are known, and the Potoridae are almost unique among vertebrates in being largely Fungivore, fungivorous, but these seem to have arisen as relatively recent adaptations from the mainstream herbivorous lifestyle. The extinct Thylacoleonidae, thylacoleonids ("marsupial lions") are the only known group to have exhibited Carnivore, carnivory on a large scale. Diprotodonts are restricted to Australasia. The earliest known fossils date to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microbiotheria
Microbiotheria is an australidelphian marsupial order that encompasses two families, Microbiotheriidae and Woodburnodontidae, and is represented by only one extant species, the monito del monte, and a number of extinct species known from fossils in South America, Western Antarctica, and northeastern Australia. Although once thought to be members of the order Didelphimorphia (the order that contains the Virginia opossum), an accumulation of both anatomical and genetic evidence in recent years has led to the conclusion that microbiotheres are not didelphids at all, but are instead most closely related to the Australasian marsupials; together, the microbiotheres and the Australian orders form the clade Australidelphia which are now thought to have first evolved in the South American region of Gondwana. Biogeography The oldest microbiothere currently recognised is ''Khasia cordillerensis'', based on fossil teeth from Early Palaeocene deposits at Tiupampa, Bolivia. Numerous gene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paucituberculata
Paucituberculata is an order of South American marsupials. Although currently represented only by the seven living species of shrew opossums, this order was formerly much more diverse, with more than 60 extinct species named from the fossil record, particularly from the late Oligocene to early Miocene epochs. The earliest paucituberculatans date to the late Paleocene (Itaboraian South American land mammal age). The group went through a pronounced decline in the middle Miocene epoch, which resulted in the extinction of all families of this order except for the living shrew opossums (Caenolestidae). Extinct families of Paucituberculatans include Pichipilidae, Palaeothentidae, and Abderitidae. Classification It is one of two clades of Ameridelphia, a paraphyletic group; genetic studies have shown these animals to be a sister group to Australidelphia (i.e., Didelphimorphia branched off first). The Paucituberculata were once considered to be closely related to South American p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
