The genus Cercartetus is a group of very small possums known as pygmy possums. Four species comprise this genus, which together with the genus Burramys make up the marsupial family Burramyidae.[1]

Cercartetus
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene - Recent
Cercartetus nanus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Burramyidae
Genus: Cercartetus
Gloger, 1841
Type species
Phalangista nana
(Desmarest, 1818)
Species

It has occasionally been presumed that Cercaërtus was a misspelling or synonym of Cercartetus.[2][3] However, the name Cercaërtus is a junior synonym of Trichosurus and not of Cercartetus.[4][5][6][7]

Conservation International (CI) and the Indonesia Institute of Science (LIPI) reported on the possible discovery of a new species of Cercartetus pygmy possum upon visit to the Foja Mountains in June 2007.[8]

Species edit

References edit

  1. ^ Groves, C. P. (2005). Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 44–45. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. OCLC 62265494.
  2. ^ Simpson, G.G. (1945). "The principles of classification and a classification of mammals". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 85: 1–350.
  3. ^ Grzimek, B. (1975). "Pygmy Possums". Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Volume 10. Mammals I. Melbourne: Van Nostrand Reinhold. p. 114.
  4. ^ Iredale, T.; Troughton, E.L.G. (1934). "A checklist of the mammals recorded from Australia". Australian Museum Memoir. 6: 1–122. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1967.6.1934.516.
  5. ^ Wakefield, N.A. (1963). "The Australian pigmy possums". The Victorian Naturalist. 80: 99–116.
  6. ^ McKay, G.M. (1988). "Burramyidae". In J.L. Bannister; J.H. Calaby; L.J. Dawson; J.K. Ling; J.A. Mahoney; G.M. McKay; B.J. Richardson; W.D.L. Ride; D. W. Walton (eds.). Zoological Catalogue of Australia 5. Mammalia. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. pp. 98–102.
  7. ^ Harris, J.M. (2006). "The discovery and early natural history of the eastern pygmy-possum, Cercartetus nanus (Geoffroy and Desmarest, 1817)". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 127: 107–124.
  8. ^ "Afp.google.com, Two new mammals found in Indonesian 'lost world': green group". Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2007-12-17.