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Bandicoot
Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal omnivorous marsupials in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago to the east and Seram and Halmahera to the west.
The bandicoots are members of the order Peramelemorphia and the word bandicoot is often used informally to refer to any peramelemorph, such as the bilby. The term originally referred to the unrelated Indian bandicoot rat from the Telugu word pandikokku (పందికొక్కు), wherein pandi means pig and kokku means rat.
Bandicoots have V-shaped faces, ending with their prominent noses similar to proboscides. These noses make them, along with bilbies, similar in appearance to elephant shrews and extinct leptictids and they are distantly related to both mammal groups. With their well-attuned snouts and sharp claws, bandicoots are fossorial diggers. They have small but fine teeth that allow them to chew their food easily.
Like most marsupials, male bandicoots have bifurcated penises.
The embryos of bandicoots have a chorioallantoic placenta that connects them to the uterine wall, in addition to the choriovitelline placenta common to all marsupials. However the chorioallantoic placenta is small compared with those of the Placentalia and lacks chorionic villi.
Bandicoots can reach 11 to 31 in (28 to 79 cm) in length and 0.4 to 3.5 lb (0.18 to 1.6 kg) in weight. A bandicoot has a long pointed snout, large ears, a short body and a long tail. Its body is covered with fur that can be brown, black, golden, white or grey. Bandicoots have strong hind legs well adapted for jumping.
Bandicoots also have low body temperatures and low basal metabolic rates, which aids their survival in hot and dry climates. They also have a low total water evaporative rate and effective panting mechanisms, which further aid their survival in hotter temperatures.
Classification within the Peramelemorphia was previously thought to be straightforward, with two families in the order—the short-legged and mostly herbivorous bandicoots, and the longer-legged, nearly carnivorous bilbies. In recent years, however, the situation clearly has become more complex. First, the bandicoots of the New Guinean and far-northern Australian rainforests were deemed distinct from all other bandicoots and were grouped together in the separate family Peroryctidae. More recently, the bandicoot families were reunited in the 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 now-extinct pig-footed bandicoot, which has been given its own family, Chaeropodidae.
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Bandicoot
Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal omnivorous marsupials in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago to the east and Seram and Halmahera to the west.
The bandicoots are members of the order Peramelemorphia and the word bandicoot is often used informally to refer to any peramelemorph, such as the bilby. The term originally referred to the unrelated Indian bandicoot rat from the Telugu word pandikokku (పందికొక్కు), wherein pandi means pig and kokku means rat.
Bandicoots have V-shaped faces, ending with their prominent noses similar to proboscides. These noses make them, along with bilbies, similar in appearance to elephant shrews and extinct leptictids and they are distantly related to both mammal groups. With their well-attuned snouts and sharp claws, bandicoots are fossorial diggers. They have small but fine teeth that allow them to chew their food easily.
Like most marsupials, male bandicoots have bifurcated penises.
The embryos of bandicoots have a chorioallantoic placenta that connects them to the uterine wall, in addition to the choriovitelline placenta common to all marsupials. However the chorioallantoic placenta is small compared with those of the Placentalia and lacks chorionic villi.
Bandicoots can reach 11 to 31 in (28 to 79 cm) in length and 0.4 to 3.5 lb (0.18 to 1.6 kg) in weight. A bandicoot has a long pointed snout, large ears, a short body and a long tail. Its body is covered with fur that can be brown, black, golden, white or grey. Bandicoots have strong hind legs well adapted for jumping.
Bandicoots also have low body temperatures and low basal metabolic rates, which aids their survival in hot and dry climates. They also have a low total water evaporative rate and effective panting mechanisms, which further aid their survival in hotter temperatures.
Classification within the Peramelemorphia was previously thought to be straightforward, with two families in the order—the short-legged and mostly herbivorous bandicoots, and the longer-legged, nearly carnivorous bilbies. In recent years, however, the situation clearly has become more complex. First, the bandicoots of the New Guinean and far-northern Australian rainforests were deemed distinct from all other bandicoots and were grouped together in the separate family Peroryctidae. More recently, the bandicoot families were reunited in the 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 now-extinct pig-footed bandicoot, which has been given its own family, Chaeropodidae.