Peramelidae
Encyclopedia
Peramelidae is the family of marsupial
s that contains all of the extant bandicoot
s. One known extinct species of bandicoot, the Pig-footed Bandicoot
, was so different than the other species that it was recently moved into its own family. There are four described fossil Peramelids. They are found throughout Australia
and New Guinea
, with at least some species living in every available habitat, from rain forest to desert.
, which is 15-17.5 cm long, to the Giant Bandicoot
, which at 39-56 cm in length and up 4.7 kilograms in weight, is about the size of a rabbit
. They have short limbs and tails, smallish, mouse-like ears, and a long, pointed snout.
Peramelids are omnivorous
, with soil-dwelling invertebrates forming the major part of their diet; they also eat seeds, fruit, and fungi. Their teeth are correspondingly unspecialised, with most species having the dental formula
Female peramelids have a pouch
that opens to the rear, and contains eight teats. The maximum litter size is therefore eight, since marsupial young are attached to the teat during development, although two to four young per litter is a more typical number. The gestation
period of peramelids is the shortest among mammals, at just 12.5 days, the young are weaned
at around two months of age, and reach sexual maturity at just three months. This allows a given female to produce more than one litter per breeding season, and gives peramelids an unusually high reproductive rate compared with other marsupials.
Marsupial
Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by giving birth to relatively undeveloped young. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, with the remaining 100 found in the Americas, primarily in South America, but with thirteen in Central...
s that contains all of the extant bandicoot
Bandicoot
Bandicoots are a group of about 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia.- Etymology :...
s. One known extinct species of bandicoot, the Pig-footed Bandicoot
Pig-footed Bandicoot
The Pig-footed Bandicoot, Chaeropus ecaudatus, was a small marsupial of the arid and semi-arid plains of Australia. The distribution range of the species was later reduced to an inland desert region, where it was last recorded in the 1950s, and is now presumed to be extinct.-Classification:This...
, was so different than the other species that it was recently moved into its own family. There are four described fossil Peramelids. They are found throughout Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, with at least some species living in every available habitat, from rain forest to desert.
Characteristics
Peramelids are small marsupials, ranging in size from the Mouse BandicootMouse Bandicoot
The Mouse Bandicoot is a species of marsupial in the family Peramelidae. It is endemic to West Papua, Indonesia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests....
, which is 15-17.5 cm long, to the Giant Bandicoot
Giant Bandicoot
The Giant Bandicoot is a species of marsupial in the Peramelidae family. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests....
, which at 39-56 cm in length and up 4.7 kilograms in weight, is about the size of a rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
. They have short limbs and tails, smallish, mouse-like ears, and a long, pointed snout.
Peramelids are omnivorous
Omnivore
Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...
, with soil-dwelling invertebrates forming the major part of their diet; they also eat seeds, fruit, and fungi. Their teeth are correspondingly unspecialised, with most species having the dental formula
Female peramelids have a pouch
Marsupium
Marsupium is the Latin word for a pouch in several animal groups:* Pouch , in marsupials* Brood pouch , in peracarid crustaceans* Brood pouch , in syngnathids such as sea horses...
that opens to the rear, and contains eight teats. The maximum litter size is therefore eight, since marsupial young are attached to the teat during development, although two to four young per litter is a more typical number. The gestation
Gestation
Gestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal. Mammals during pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time ....
period of peramelids is the shortest among mammals, at just 12.5 days, the young are weaned
Weaning
Weaning is the process of gradually introducing a mammal infant, either human or animal, to what will be its adult diet and withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk.The process takes place only in mammals, as only mammals produce milk...
at around two months of age, and reach sexual maturity at just three months. This allows a given female to produce more than one litter per breeding season, and gives peramelids an unusually high reproductive rate compared with other marsupials.
Classification
- Family Peramelidae
- Subfamily Peramelinae
- Genus Isoodon: short-nosed bandicoots
- Golden BandicootGolden BandicootThe Golden Bandicoot is a short-nosed bandicoot found in northern Australia. It is by far the smallest of its genus, being a little over half the size of its relatives the Northern Brown Bandicoot and the Southern Brown Bandicoot .The Golden Bandicoot is now a threatened species...
, Isoodon auratus - Northern Brown BandicootNorthern Brown BandicootThe Northern Brown Bandicoot , a marsupial species, is a bandicoot found only on the northern and eastern coasts of Australia and nearby islands, mainly Papua New Guinea. It is not, however, found far inland....
, Isoodon macrourus - Southern Brown BandicootSouthern Brown BandicootThe Southern Brown Bandicoot , also known as the Quenda from the local Noongar tongue from South Western Australia, is a short-nosed bandicoot found mostly in southern Australia....
, Isoodon obesulus - Ischnodon australis† (fossil)
- Golden Bandicoot
- Genus Perameles: long-nosed bandicoots
- Western Barred BandicootWestern Barred BandicootThe Western Barred Bandicoot , also known as the Marl, is a small species of bandicoot found in Australia. It was once widespread across southern Australia from Western Australia to central New South Wales, but it is now found on Bernier, Dorre and Faure islands in Shark Bay, Western Australia,...
, Perameles bougainville - Eastern Barred BandicootEastern Barred BandicootThe Eastern Barred Bandicoot was once distributed across the Basalt Plains of south west Victoria, and in Tasmania. It is a small, rabbit sized marsupial weighing less than 1 kg with a short tail and three to four whitish bars across the rump. It lives for just two to three years and is not...
, Perameles gunnii - Long-nosed BandicootLong-nosed BandicootThe Long-nosed Bandicoot is a species of bandicoot found in Australia. It is the largest member of its genus, which also includes the Western Barred Bandicoot, the Eastern Barred Bandicoot and the Desert Bandicoot....
, Perameles nasuta - Desert BandicootDesert BandicootThe Desert Bandicoot is an extinct bandicoot of the arid country in the centre of Australia. The last known specimen was collected in 1943 on the Canning Stock Route in Western Australia...
, Perameles eremiana† (extinct) - Perameles allinghamensisPerameles allinghamensisThe Bluff Downs Bandicoot is a small extinct Bandicoot that lived in Australia 4 million years ago in the Pliocene period. It was discovered at the Bluff Downs fossil site in northern Queensland. Its diet probably consisted of insects and soft roots dug for with its front claws.-Sources:*...
† (fossil) - Perameles bowensisPerameles bowensisPerameles bowensis is an extinct species of bandicoot. Fossils have been found in the Wellington Caves of New South Wales. The bandicoot was about 20 centimeters long. It is believed to have gone extinct in the Late Pliocene....
† (fossil)
- Western Barred Bandicoot
- Genus Isoodon: short-nosed bandicoots
- Subfamily Peroryctinae
- Genus Peroryctes: New Guinean long-nosed bandicoots
- Giant BandicootGiant BandicootThe Giant Bandicoot is a species of marsupial in the Peramelidae family. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests....
, Peroryctes broadbenti - Raffray's BandicootRaffray's BandicootRaffray's Bandicoot is a species of marsupial in the family Peramelidae. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests....
, Peroryctes raffrayana - Peroryctes tedfordi† (fossil)
- Giant Bandicoot
- Genus Peroryctes: New Guinean long-nosed bandicoots
- Subfamily Echymiperinae
- Genus Echymipera: New Guinean spiny bandicoots
- Long-nosed Spiny BandicootLong-nosed Spiny BandicootThe Long-nosed Echymipera , or Long-nosed Spiny Bandicoot, is a species of marsupial in the family Peramelidae. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests....
, Echymipera rufescens - Clara's Spiny BandicootClara's Spiny BandicootClara's Echymipera , or Clara's Spiny Bandicoot or White-lipped Bandicoot, is a species of marsupial in the Peramelidae family. It is found in West Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests. It is threatened by habitat loss....
, Echymipera clara - Menzies' Spiny BandicootMenzies' Spiny BandicootMenzies' Echymipera , or Menzies' Spiny Bandicoot or Fly River Bandicoot, is a species of marsupial in the Peramelidae family. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea....
, Echymipera echinista - Common Spiny BandicootCommon Spiny BandicootThe Common Echymipera , or Common Spiny Bandicoot, is a bandicoot. It is long-snouted even by bandicoot standards. The upper parts are a coarse reddish brown, flecked with spiny buff and black hairs. The tail is short and almost hairless...
, Echymipera kaluba - David's Spiny BandicootDavid's Spiny BandicootDavid's Echymipera , or David's Spiny Bandicoot, is a species of marsupial in the Peramelidae family. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea....
, Echymipera davidi
- Long-nosed Spiny Bandicoot
- Genus Microperoryctes : New Guinean mouse bandicoots
- Mouse BandicootMouse BandicootThe Mouse Bandicoot is a species of marsupial in the family Peramelidae. It is endemic to West Papua, Indonesia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests....
, Microperoryctes murina - Eastern Striped BandicootEastern Striped BandicootThe Eastern Striped Bandicoot is a species of marsupial in the Peramelidae family. It is found in eastern Papua New Guinea in the Enga Province. It is endemic to mountain forested habitats ranging from 1,000 – 3,600 m in elevation...
, Microperoryctes ornata - Western Striped BandicootWestern Striped BandicootThe Striped Bandicoot is a species of marsupial in the Peramelidae family. It is found in West Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests....
, Microperoryctes longicauda - Arfak Pygmy BandicootArfak Pygmy BandicootThe Arfak Pygmy Bandicoot is a species of marsupial in the Peramelidae family. It is endemic to the Arfak mountains in the Vogelkop Peninsula of West Papua, in Indonesia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests....
, Microperoryctes aplini - Papuan BandicootPapuan BandicootThe Papuan Bandicoot is a species of marsupial in the Peramelidae family. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests....
, Microperoryctes papuensis
- Mouse Bandicoot
- Genus Rhynchomeles
- Ceram BandicootCeram BandicootThe Seram Bandicoot , also known as the Seram Island Long-nosed Bandicoot, is a member of the order Peramelemorphia. The species was described from a collection of seven specimens, made in 1920 at the Indonesian island of Seram, the only record of its existence...
, Rhynchomeles prattorum
- Ceram Bandicoot
- Genus Echymipera: New Guinean spiny bandicoots
- Subfamily Peramelinae