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Bandicoot
A bandicoot is any of about 8 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the subfamily Peramelinae (the true bandicoots) of the family Peramelidae; or in a broader sense, any of about 21 species of fairly similar animals in the order Peramelemorphia. This page describes the true bandicoots.
Classification within the Peramelemorphia used to be simple: there were thought to be two families in the order—the short-legged and mostly herbivorous bandicoots, and the longer-legged, more nearly carnivorous bilbies. In recent years, however, it has become clear that the rainforest bandicoots[?] of New Guinea and far-northern Australia are distinct from all other bandicoots, and these remain within the order but are now grouped together in the separate family Peroryctidae[?].
The bilbies, on the other hand, despite their distinct appearance and habits, are more closely related to the true bandicoots than they look, and they are now regarded as merely a subfamily within the Peramelidae.
- ORDER PERAMELEMORPHIA
- Family Peramelidae
- Subfamily Peramelinae:
- Western Barred Bandicoot, Perameles bougainville
- Eastern Barred Bandicoot, Perameles gunnii
- Long-nosed Bandicoot[?], Perameles nasuta
- Desert Bandicoot, Perameles bougainville (extinct)
- Golden Bandicoot, Isoodon auratus
- Northern Brown Bandicoot, Isoodon macrourus
- Southern Brown Bandicoot, Isoodon obesulus
- Pig-footed Bandicoot, Chaeropus ecaudatus (extinct)
- Subfamily Thylacomyinae: bilbies, 2 species
- Family Peroryctidae[?]: rainforest bandicoots, about 11 species in 4 genera
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