Antechinus
genus of mammals
Antechinus (, 'ant-echinus') is a genus of small dasyurid marsupial endemic to Australia. They resemble mice with the bristly fur of shrews.
Names
They are also sometimes called 'broad-footed marsupial mice', 'pouched mice', or 'Antechinus shrews'. However, the majority of those common names are considered either regional or archaic; the modern common name for the animal is antechinus.
Description
Antechinus have short fur and are generally greyish or brownish in colour, varying with species. The fur is dense and generally soft. Their tails are thin and tapering and range from slightly shorter to slightly longer than body length. Their heads are conical in shape and ears are small to medium in size. Some species have a relatively long, narrow snout that gives them a shrew-like appearance. Species vary from 12–31 cm (4.7–12.2 in) in length and weigh 16–170 g (0.56–6.00 oz) when fully grown.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Antechinus” is genus of mammals. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Antechinus, genus and mammals, not as a finished interpretation.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q650656. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Antechinus” 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.