Dromiciops

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Dromiciops
Chiloe opossum (Dromiciops gliroides)

Chiloe opossum ( Dromiciops gliroides )

Systematics
Class : Mammals (mammalia)
Subclass : Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Superordinate : Australidelphia
Order : Microbiotheria
Family : Microbiotheriidae
Genre : Dromiciops
Scientific name
Dromiciops
Thomas , 1894

Dromiciops is a genus of marsupials within the Australidelphia , which is distributed with three species in South America. It belongs to the family of Microbiotheriidae, which waswidespread in South Americaduring the Oligocene and Miocene , and of which the three species are the last recent representatives.

features

The opossum rats of the genus Dromiciops are rat-like animals with dense, short fur, whereby the light brown-gray back fur stands out strongly from the lighter side fur. The belly is light gray to yellowish-white in color. They reach a body length of about 8.5 to 12 centimeters, the tail reaches approximately the same length with 9 to 13 centimeters and their weight is between 16 and 42 grams. Except for a hairless area on the underside of the tip of the tail, the tail is densely hairy and easy to grip. They differ from the dwarf pouch rats and Chilean opossum mice living in their area of ​​distribution by their marbled fur, as well as by clearly smaller, only sparsely hairy ears compared to the dwarf pouch rats and a longer tail compared to the Chilean opossum mice. The female has a small but recognizable pouch with 4 teats.

distribution

Distribution area of ​​the genus Dromiciops ,
D. bozinovici (light blue),
D. mondaca (yellow),
D. gliroides (red)

The distribution area of ​​the Dromiciops species extends over parts of Chile and the neighboring regions of Argentina in South America. The Chiloé opossum ( Dromiciops gliroides ), which occurs in Chile from the 40th to the 43rd parallel, in neighboring Argentina and on the island of Chiloé, which belongs to Chile, has the largest distribution area . Dromiciops bozinovici lives in a small area in the south of the Chilean lake region (such as Región de la Araucanía and Región del Bío-Bío ) and also in neighboring Argentina, and Dromiciops mondaca is only made up of two small, closely spaced areas in the coastal cordillera of the Región de Los Ríos known in southern Chile.

Systematics

The genus Dromiciops was established in 1894 by the British naturalist Oldfield Thomas , who also described the Chiloé opossum ( Dromiciops gliroides ), which was recognized for a long time as the only species of the genus . The species is morphologically so variable that in April 2016 two further species of the genus Dromiciops were described and separated from Dromiciops gliroides . For the Dromiciops -Population between the 41st and 43rd latitude the scientific name was Dromiciops bozinovici introduced for a small Dromiciops -Population at San Martín in northwestern de Región Los Ríos the scientific name Dromiciops Mondaca .

supporting documents

  1. a b Guillermo D'Elía, Natalí Hurtado, Alejandro D'Anatro. Alpha taxonomy of Dromiciops (Microbiotheriidae) with the description of 2 new species of monito del monte. Journal of Mammalogy. April 2016. DOI: 10.1093 / jmammal / gyw068

literature

  • Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999, ISBN 0801857899 .
  • Kent H. Redford, John F. Eisenberg: The Southern Cone. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1992, ISBN 0226706826 ( Mammals of the Neotropics. Volume 2).

Web links

Commons : Dromiciops  - collection of images, videos and audio files