Dunnart is a common name for species of the genus ''Sminthopsis'', narrow-footed

marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a po ...

s the size of a European mouse. They have a largely

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

diet.

Taxonomy

Fat-tailed_Dunnart_(Sminthopsis_crassicaudata)_(14559441713)

The genus name ''Sminthopsis'' was published by

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 appoin ...

in 1887, the author noting that the name ''

Podabrus ''Podabrus'' is a genus of soldier beetles in the family Cantharidae. There are at least 110 described species in ''Podabrus'', recorded from Europe, North America and Asia. Many ''Podabrus'' appear to mimic MIMIC, known in capitalized form o ...

'' that had previously been used to describe the species was preoccupied as a genus of beetles. The type species is ''

Phascogale crassicaudata The fat-tailed dunnart (''Sminthopsis crassicaudata'') is a species of mouse-like marsupial of the Dasyuridae, the family that includes the little red kaluta, quolls, and the Tasmanian devil. It has an average body length of with a tail of . Ear ...

'', published by

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

in 1844. There are 23 species, all of which occur in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

: * Genus ''Sminthopsis'' ** ''S. crassicaudata'' species-group ***

Fat-tailed dunnart The fat-tailed dunnart (''Sminthopsis crassicaudata'') is a species of mouse-like marsupial of the Dasyuridae, the family that includes the little red kaluta, quolls, and the Tasmanian devil. It has an average body length of with a tail of . Ear ...

, ''Sminthopsis crassicaudata'' ** ''S. macroura'' species-group *** Kakadu dunnart, ''Sminthopsis bindi'' ***

Carpentarian dunnart The Carpentarian dunnart (''Sminthopsis butleri'') also known as Butler's dunnart is a marsupial with a puffy brown or mouse grey colour above and the underside of white, similar to its close relative the Kakadu dunnart. Head to anus length is 7 ...

, ''Sminthopsis butleri'' ***

Julia Creek dunnart The Julia Creek dunnart (''Sminthopsis douglasi'') is a marsupial with a buffy brown upperside and white underside. This dunnart has a body length of 100–135 mm with a tail of 60–105 mm to make a total length of 160–240 mm. ...

, ''Sminthopsis douglasi'' *** Froggatt's dunnart, ''Sminthopsis froggatti'' ***

Stripe-faced dunnart The striped-faced dunnart (''Sminthopsis macroura'') is a small, Australian, nocturnal, "marsupial mouse," part of the family Dasyuridae. The species' distribution occurs throughout much of inland central and northern Australia, occupying a ran ...

, ''Sminthopsis macroura'' *** Stalker's dunnart, ''Sminthopsis stalkeri'' ***

Red-cheeked dunnart The red-cheeked dunnart (''Sminthopsis virginiae'') is so called because of the distinctive red hair on its cheek. It is an Australasian marsupial. Its total length is ; its average body length is with a tail of . Ear length is . Its weight vari ...

, ''Sminthopsis virginiae'' ** ''S. granulipes'' species-group ***

White-tailed dunnart The white-tailed dunnart (''Sminthopsis granulipes''), also known as the ash-grey dunnart, is a dunnart native to Australia. Taxonomy A species first named by Gerard Krefft in 1872, using a specimen obtained at Albany by the local collector G ...

, ''Sminthopsis granulipes'' ** ''S. griseoventer'' species-group ***

Kangaroo Island dunnart The Kangaroo Island dunnart (''Sminthopsis aitkeni'') is a dark sooty-grey coloured dunnart species first described in 1969, with paler underparts of its body. It has an average body length of 170–198 mm, a snout to anus length of 80–9 ...

, ''Sminthopsis aitkeni'' ***

Boullanger Island dunnart The Boullanger Island dunnart (''Sminthopsis boullangerensis'') is a species of dunnart found only on Boullanger Island, Western Australia. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the grey-bellied dunnart (''S. griseoventer''), for which rea ...

, ''Sminthopsis boullangerensis'' ***

Grey-bellied dunnart The grey-bellied dunnart (''Sminthopsis griseoventer''), alternately spelled gray-bellied dunnart, was described by the same people Kitchener, Stoddart and Henry along with the Kangaroo Island dunnart, Gilbert's dunnart and little long-tailed du ...

, ''Sminthopsis griseoventer'' ** ''S. longicaudata'' species-group ***

Long-tailed dunnart The long-tailed dunnart (''Sminthopsis longicaudata'') is an Australian dunnart that, like the little long-tailed dunnart, has a tail longer than its body. It is also one of the larger dunnarts at a length from snout to tail of 260–306 mm ...

, ''Sminthopsis longicaudata'' ** ''S. murina'' species-group ***

Chestnut dunnart The chestnut dunnart (''Sminthopsis archeri'') is a dunnart that was described by Van Dyck in 1986 and is named because of its chestnut colour in the upperparts of its body. The length from snout to tail is 167–210 mm, of which head to anu ...

, ''Sminthopsis archeri'' ***

Little long-tailed dunnart The Little long-tailed dunnart (''Sminthopsis dolichura'') is a dunnart that was, along with Gilbert's dunnart, described in 1984. The length from snout to tail is of which head and body are and tail long. Hind foot size is , the ear length is ...

, ''Sminthopsis dolichura'' ***

Sooty dunnart The sooty dunnart (''Sminthopsis fuliginosus'') is a species of dunnart found in Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding ...

, ''Sminthopsis fuliginosus'' ***

Gilbert's dunnart Gilbert's dunnart (''Sminthopsis gilberti'') is a recently discovered dunnart, described in 1984. The length from snout to tail being of which the head and body are and the tail . The hind foot size is , the ear length is and with the weight ...

, ''Sminthopsis gilberti'' ***

White-footed dunnart The white-footed dunnart (''Sminthopsis leucopus'') is a marsupial that occurs on Tasmania and mainland Australia. It occurs along the coast and in inner Gippsland and Alpine areas up to 400 metres near Narbethong. In southern New South Wal ...

, ''Sminthopsis leucopus'' ***

Slender-tailed dunnart The slender-tailed dunnart (''Sminthopsis murina''), also known as the common dunnart in Australia, is a dasyurid marsupial. It has an average body length of 7 to 12 centimeters (2.8–4.7 in) with a tail length of 5.5 to 13 centim ...

, ''Sminthopsis murina'' ** ''S. psammophila'' species-group ***

Hairy-footed dunnart The hairy-footed dunnart (''Sminthopsis hirtipes'') is a dunnart that has silver hairs on the soles of it hind feet accompanied by long hair on the side of its sole. It is an Australian marsupial similar to the Ooldea dunnart, with its upper bod ...

, ''Sminthopsis hirtipes'' *** Ooldea dunnart, ''Sminthopsis ooldea'' *** Sandhill dunnart, ''Sminthopsis psammophila'' *** Lesser hairy-footed dunnart, ''Sminthopsis youngsoni'' The genus is referred to by their common name of dunnarts.

Description

A male dunnart's

Y chromosome The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes (allosomes) in therian mammals, including humans, and many other animals. The other is the X chromosome. Y is normally the sex-determining chromosome in many species, since it is the presence or abse ...

is the smallest known mammalian Y chromosome.

References

External links

Marsupial Society's checklist
{{Taxonbar, from=Q653458 Dasyuromorphs Marsupials of Australia Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas