Bandicoot

Bandicoot

Taxobox
name = BandicootsMSW3 Groves]


image_width = 200px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
infraclassis = Marsupialia
ordo = Peramelemorphia
(in part)
subdivision_ranks = Families and Genera
subdivision = †Chaeropodidae
*†"Chaeropus"
Peramelidae
*"Isoodon"
*"Perameles"
*"Peroryctes"
*"Echymipera"
*"Microperoryctes"
*"Rhynchomeles"A bandicoot is any of about 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. The word bandicoot is an anglicised form of the Telugu word "pandi-kokku", (loosely, pig-rat) which originally referred to the unrelated Indian Bandicoot Rat. The other two species of peramelemorphs are the bilbies.

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 situation is more complex. First, the bandicoots of the New Guinean and far-northern Australian rainforests were deemed distinct from all other bandicoots, and these were grouped together in the separate family Peroryctidae. More recently, the bandicoot families were reunited in Peramelidae, with the New Guinean species split into four genera in two subfamilies, Peroryctinae and Echymiperinae, while the "true bandicoots" occupy the subfamily Peramelinae. The only exception is the extinct Pig-footed Bandicoot, which has been given its own family, Chaeropodidae.

The embryos of bandicoots, unlike other marsupials, form a placenta-like organ that connects it to the uterine wall. The function of this organ is probably to transfer nutrients from the mother; however the structure is small compared to those of the placentalia.

* ORDER PERAMELEMORPHIA
** Family Thylacomyidae: bilbies, 2 species
** Family †Chaeropodidae: Pig-footed Bandicoot
** Family Peramelidae
*** Subfamily Peramelinae
**** Genus "Isoodon": short-nosed bandicoots
**** Genus "Perameles": long-nosed bandicoots
*** Subfamily Peroryctinae
**** Genus "Peroryctes": New Guinean long-nosed bandicoots
*** Subfamily Echymiperinae
**** Genus "Echymipera": New Guinean spiny bandicoots
**** Genus "Microperoryctes": New Guinean mouse bandicoots
**** Genus "Rhynchomeles": Ceram Bandicoot
** Superfamily †Yaraloidea
*** Family †Yaralidae: fossil bandicoots, 2 species

References


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Bandicoot — Ban di*coot, n. [A corruption of the native name.] (Zo[ o]l.) (a) A species of very large rat ({Mus giganteus}), found in India and Ceylon. It does much injury to rice fields and gardens. (b) A ratlike marsupial animal (genus {Perameles}) of… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • bandicoot — ● bandicoot nom masculin (mot anglais, du telugu pandi koku, cochon rat) Nom commun à plusieurs mammifères marsupiaux. (Famille des péramélidés.) …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • bandicoot — 1789, from Telegu pandi kokku, lit. pig rat. Properly a large and destructive Indian rat; applied from 1827 to a type of insectivorous Australian marsupial somewhat resembling it …   Etymology dictionary

  • bandicoot — ► NOUN ▪ a mainly insectivorous marsupial native to Australia and New Guinea. ORIGIN from an Indian language, meaning pig rat …   English terms dictionary

  • bandicoot — [ban′di ko͞ot΄] n. [< Telugu pandikokku, lit., pig rat] 1. a member of either genus (Bandicota and Nesokia, family Muridae) of large rats, found esp. in India and Sri Lanka, that destroy grain and root crops 2. any of an order (Peramelina) of… …   English World dictionary

  • Bandicoot — Peramelidae Péramélidés …   Wikipédia en Français

  • bandicoot — Soon after white settlement in 1788 the word bandicoot (the name for the Indian mammal Bandicota indica) was applied to several Australian mammals having long pointed heads and bearing some resemblance to their Indian namesake. In 1799 David… …   Australian idioms

  • bandicoot — /ˈbændikut / (say bandeekooht) noun 1. any of various small, omnivorous, somewhat rat like Australian and New Guinean marsupials of the families Paramelidae and Peroryctidea. 2. any of the very large rats of the genus Bandicota, of India and Sri… …  

  • Bandicoot — miserable as a bandicoot Extremely unhappy. Bandicoots are small marsupials with long faces, and have been given a role in Australian English in similes that suggest unhappiness or some kind of deprivation. The expression miserable as a bandicoot …   Australian idioms

  • bandicoot — /ban di kooht /, n. 1. any of several large East Indian rats of the genus Nesokia. 2. any of several insectivorous and herbivorous marsupials of the family Peramelidae, of Australia and New Guinea: some are endangered. [1780 90; < Telugu pandi… …   Universalium

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