Quoll
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Quolls | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Eastern Quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
| Order: | Dasyuromorphia |
| Family: | Dasyuridae |
| Subfamily: | Dasyurinae |
| Tribe: | Dasyurini |
| Genus: | Dasyurus É. Geoffroy, 1796 |
| Type species | |
| Didelphis maculata Anon., 1791 (= Didelphis viverrina Shaw, 1800) |
|
| Species | |
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See text. |
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Quoll (genus Dasyurus) are meat-eating marsupials native to Australia and Papua New Guinea.[1] The name dasyurus means "hairy tail."[2] Adults are between 25 and 75 cm long, with hairy tails about 20-35 cm long (about the size of a cat). Females have pouch to carry their babies.
Quolls are threatened by eating toxic cane toads, but a University of Sydney project is teaching them not to eat them.[3]
The family Dasyurini to which quolls belong also includes the Tasmanian devil, antechinuses, the Kowari, and mulgaras.[1]
Quoll species [change]
Within the genus Dasyurus, the following species exist:[1]
- New Guinean Quoll, Dasyurus albopunctatus, New Guinea
- Western Quoll or Chuditch, Dasyurus geoffroii, western Australia
- Northern Quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus, northern Australia
- Tiger Quoll or Spotted Quoll, Dasyurus maculatus, eastern Australia
- Bronze Quoll, Dasyurus spartacus, New Guinea
- Eastern Quoll, Dasyurus viverrinus, Tasmania (formerly mainland eastern Australia)[4]
There is at least one fossil species from the Pliocene, that is D. dunmalli.[5]
References [change]
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Wikispecies has information on: Dasyurus. |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Groves, Colin (16 November 2005). Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds). ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd edition ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 24–25. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3.
- ↑ Serena, M.; Soderquist, T. (1995). "Western Quoll". In Strahan, Ronald. The Mammals of Australia. Reed Books. pp. 62–64.
- ↑ "Taste training for northern quolls". Australian Geographic. http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/quolls-in-danger.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
- ↑ Erica Rex (November 23, 2008). "Hope for Tasmanian devils, a decimated species". New York Times. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/23/MNRD146AD2.DTL. Retrieved 2008-12-12. "Another carnivorous marsupial indigenous to Tasmania, the quoll has a white-dotted reddish to dark chocolate brown coat and is about the size of a small house cat."
- ↑ http://www.helsinki.fi/~mhaaramo/metazoa/deuterostoma/chordata/synapsida/metatheria/notometatheria/dasyuromorphia/dasyurinae.html Mikkos taxonomy
