Dasyuromorphia
order of mammals
Dasyuromorphia ( da-see-yoor-oh-MOR-fee-ə) is an order comprising most of the Australian carnivorous marsupials. The order contains four families: Myrmecobiidae, with just a single living species, the numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus); Thylacinidae, with one recently extinct species, the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and several fossil species; Dasyuridae, with 73 extant species, including quolls, dunnarts, and the Tasmanian devil; and the extinct fossil family Malleodectidae with six genera.
Description
The body size of dasyuromorphs varies considerably, from only 4 grams (0.14 oz) in long-tailed planigale, which is the smallest living marsupial, up to 35 kilograms (77 lb) in the recently extinct thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus). They show considerable morphological diversity, including the kultarr (Antechinomys laniger), which is adapted for hopping locomotion. Members of the group are mostly carnivorous, either feeding on vertebrate prey or arthropods such as insects. The lower molar teeth of dasyuromorphs typically show a carnassial-like morphology. Members of this order are monophyodont, meaning they only have one set of teeth throughout their lives. Each erupting molar must function as a carnassial, before being pushed forward in the jaw by the next erupting molar. Because of this, dasyuromorphs are prevented from adapting some molars for other functions, which may have restricted their diversity relative to carnivorans.
Phylogeny
Overall phylogeny of Dasyuromorphia (greatly truncated) after Kealy et al.
“Dasyuromorphia” enters the record as order of mammals. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dasyuromorphia, order and mammals can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dasyuromorphia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.