Predator-like

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Predator-like
Above: Bag wolf, Tasmanian devil Middle: Giant bag marten, Numbat Below: Yellow-footed bag-mouse, thick-tailed, narrow-footed bag-mouse

Above: Bag wolf , Tasmanian devil
Middle: Giant bag marten , Numbat
Below: Yellow-footed bag- mouse , thick -tailed , narrow -footed bag- mouse

Systematics
without rank: Amniotes (Amniota)
without rank: Synapsids (Synapsida)
Class : Mammals (mammalia)
Subclass : Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Superordinate : Australidelphia
Order : Predator-like
Scientific name
Dasyuromorphia
Gill , 1872

The Predator-like (Dasyuromorphia) form an order within the bag mammals (Metatheria). Most carnivorous marsupials belong in this order. Many species were given names by European settlers, which are based on higher mammals , such as " bag marten ", " bag wolf ", " bag mice ". However, the similarities between the predator and their namesake are based on convergent evolution .

description

Many predator species differ only slightly in their body structure, but considerably in their size. Many marsupial mice reached only about the size of a mouse and are among the smallest marsupials at all, during the Tasmanian Devil with tail over 1 m long and can reach over 10 kg of weight. The extinct thylacine was even bigger. They are all dexterous, nimble hunters who feed on insects or vertebrates, depending on their size. Some species also eat carrion.

distribution

The predator-like species occur in Australia , New Guinea , Tasmania and some other offshore islands.

Systematics

The order consists of two recent and two extinct families, two of which include only one species:

  • The Raubbeutler (Dasyuridae) comprise around 60 species, including the bag-marten , the bag-devil and several species of bag-mice .
  • The Myrmecobiidae with the numbat ( Myrmecobius fasciatus ), or anthill.
  • The Thylacinidae with the thylacine wolf ( Thylacinus cynocephalus ), which was exterminated at the beginning of the 20th century.
  • The Malleodectidae with the genus Malleodectes and two kinds. These are ferret-sized predatory pouches from the Miocene that specialize in hard-shelled prey .

The extinct marsupial lions (Thylacoleonidae), however, did not belong to the predator-like species, but to the order Diprotodontia .

literature

  • Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 ISBN 0-8018-5789-9

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Archer, SJ Hand, KH Black, RMD Beck, DA Arena, LAB Wilson, S. Kealy and T.-t. Hung. 2016. A New Family of Bizarre Durophagous Carnivorous Marsupials from Miocene Deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland. Scientific Reports. 6, Article number: 26911. DOI: 10.1038 / srep26911