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Bandicoot

True Bandicoots
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Subclass:Marsupialia
Order:Peramelemorphia
Family:Peramelidae
Subfamily:Peramelinae
Genera
 Perameles
 Isoodon
 Chaeropus

A bandicoot is any of about 8 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the subfamily Peramelinae (the true bandicoots) of the family Peramelidae; or in a broader sense, any of about 21 species of fairly similar animals in the order Peramelemorphia. This page describes the true bandicoots.

Classification within the Peramelemorphia used to be simple: there were thought to be two families in the order—the short-legged and mostly herbivorous bandicoots, and the longer-legged, more nearly carnivorous bilbies. In recent years, however, it has become clear that the rainforest bandicoots[?] of New Guinea and far-northern Australia are distinct from all other bandicoots, and these remain within the order but are now grouped together in the separate family Peroryctidae[?].

The bilbies, on the other hand, despite their distinct appearance and habits, are more closely related to the true bandicoots than they look, and they are now regarded as merely a subfamily within the Peramelidae.

  • ORDER PERAMELEMORPHIA
  • Family Peramelidae
    • Subfamily Peramelinae:
      • Western Barred Bandicoot, Perameles bougainville
      • Eastern Barred Bandicoot, Perameles gunnii
      • Long-nosed Bandicoot[?], Perameles nasuta
      • Desert Bandicoot, Perameles bougainville (extinct)
      • Golden Bandicoot, Isoodon auratus
      • Northern Brown Bandicoot, Isoodon macrourus
      • Southern Brown Bandicoot, Isoodon obesulus
      • Pig-footed Bandicoot, Chaeropus ecaudatus (extinct)
    • Subfamily Thylacomyinae: bilbies, 2 species
  • Family Peroryctidae[?]: rainforest bandicoots, about 11 species in 4 genera



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