Family PHALANGERIDAE

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Family PHALANGERIDAE

Compiler and date details

October 2010 - Updated by Stephen M. Jackson, c/- Queensland Museum, Brisbane, following Van Dyck & Strahan (2008)

31 December 1998 - G.M. McKay (1988); updated by Barry J. Richardson (1999), Centre for Biostructural and Biomolecular Research, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, NSW, Australia

Introduction

The three genera in this family form a coherent, apparently monophyletic group, characterized by bunodont molars, conical to sectorial premolars and a strongly prehensile tail with a friction pad. The degree of nakedness of the tail varies, reaching an extreme in Wyulda. This monotypic genus occurs only in northern Western Australia and has been, as yet, only poorly studied.

Trichosurus is considered to consist of two species, one of which (T. vulpecula), has had many subspecies designated. In the taxonomic treatment in this work no subspecific arrangement for T. vulpecula is given; the available names have simply been listed.
This species has become a major pest in New Zealand (Cowan 1990).

The cuscuses have been reviewed by George (1979, 1987), Menzies & Pernetta (1986) and Colgan et al. (1993) with markedly different results and the two species found in Australia (and elsewhere) are here placed in different genera.

General References

Colgan, D., Flannery, T.F., Trimble, J. & Aplin, K. 1993. Electrophoresis and morphological analysis of the systematics of the Phalanger orientalis (Marsupialia) species complex in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Australian Journal of Zoology 41: 355-378

Cowan, P.E. 1990. Brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula (Kerr, 1792). pp. 68-98 in King, C.M. (ed.). The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals. Auckland : Oxford University Press.

Edwards, D. & Westerman, M. 1995. The molecular relationships of possum and glider families as revealed by DNA-DNA hybridisations. Australian Journal of Zoology 43: 231-240 [publication date established from Duncan, F.M. 1937. On the dates of publication of the Society's 'Proceedings', 1859–1926. With an appendix containing the dates of publication of 'Proceedings', 1830–1858, compiled by the late F.H. Waterhouse, and of the 'Transactions', 1853–1869, by the late Henry Peavot, originally published in P.Z.S. 1893, 1913. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 107: 71–84]

George, G.G. 1979. The status of endangered Papua New Guinea mammals. pp. 93-100 in Tyler, M.J. (ed.). The Status of Endangered Australasian Wildlife. Adelaide : Royal Zoological Society of South Australia.

George, G.G. 1987. Characterisation of the living species of cuscus (Marsupialia: Phalangeridae). pp. 507-526 in Archer, M. (ed.). Possums and Opossums: studies in evolution. Sydney : Surrey Beatty & Sons with the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales 2 vols lxxii 788 pp.

Kirsch, J.A.W. & Calaby, J.H. 1977. The species of living marsupials: an annotated list. pp. 9-26 in Stonehouse, B. & Gilmore, D. (eds). The Biology of Marsupials. Baltimore : University Park Press.

McKay, G.M. & Winter, J.W. 1989. Phalangeridae. pp. 636-651 in Walton, D.W. & Richardson, B.J. (eds). Fauna of Australia. Mammalia. Canberra : Australian Government Publishing Service Vol. 1B 827 pp.

Menzies, J.I. & Pernetta, J.C. 1986. A taxonomic revision of cuscuses allied to Phalanger orientalis (Marsupialia: Phalangeridae). Journal of Zoology, London B 1: 551-618

Norris, C.A. 1994. The periotic bones of possums and cuscuses: cuscus polyphyly and the division of the marsupial family Phalangeridae. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology 111: 73-98

Springer, M., Kirsch, J.A.W., Aplin, K. & Flannery, T. 1990. DNA hybridisation, cladistics and the phylogeny of phalangerid marsupials. Journal of Molecular Evolution 30: 298-311

Tate, G.H.H. 1945. Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 52 The marsupial genus Phalanger. American Museum Novitates 1283: 1-41