Pygmy possum
| Pygmy possums[1] Fossil range: Pleistocene–Recent |
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| Eastern Pygmy Possum (Cercartetus nanus) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
| Order: | Diprotodontia |
| Family: | Burramyidae Broom, 1898 |
| Genera | |
The pygmy possums are a family of small possums that together form the marsupial family Burramyidae. There are five extant species of pygmy possum, 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 5 to 12 centimetres (2.0 to 4.7 in) long, and usually weigh between 10 to 50 grams (0.35 to 1.8 oz). 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 possession of a prehensile tail. Although they cannot glide like some other species of possum, some species are able to leap a long distance.[2]
Conservation International (CI) and the Indonesia Institute of Science (LIPI) reported on the possible discovery of a new species of Cercartetus pygmy possum upon visit to the Foja Mountains in June 2007.[3]
[edit] Classification
There are two genera of pygmy possums: Burramys and Cercartetus. Burramys contains only one extant species, the Mountain Pygmy Possum, Burramys parvus. As currently understood, Cercartetus consists of four extant species.
- Family Burramyidae: pygmy possums
- Genus Burramys
- Mountain Pygmy Possum, Burramys parvus
- †Burramys wakefieldi
- †Burramys tridactylus
- †Burramys brutyi
- Genus Cercartetus
- Long-tailed Pygmy Possum, Cercartetus caudatus
- Western Pygmy Possum, Cercartetus concinnus
- Tasmanian Pygmy Possum, Cercartetus lepidus
- Eastern Pygmy Possum, Cercartetus nanus
- Genus Burramys
† = extinct species.
[edit] References
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Wikispecies has information related to: Burramyidae |
- ^ Groves, C. (2005). Wilson, D. E., & Reeder, D. M, eds. ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 44-45. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3.
- ^ Turner, Vivienne and McKay, G. M. (1989). "27. Burramyidae". In Walton, D.W. and Richardson, B. J. (eds). Fauna of Australia, Volume 1B: Mammalia. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. ISBN 0-644-06056-5.
- ^ Afp.google.com, Two new mammals found in Indonesian 'lost world': green group
