Diprotodontia is the largest extant order of marsupials, with about 155 species, including the kangaroos, wallabies, possums, koala, wombats, and many others. Extinct diprotodonts include the hippopotamus-sized Diprotodon, and Thylacoleo, the so-called "marsupial lion".
Dasyuromorphia is an order comprising most of the Australian carnivorous marsupials, including quolls, dunnarts, the numbat, the Tasmanian devil, and the extinct thylacine. In Australia, the exceptions include the omnivorous bandicoots and the marsupial moles. Numerous South American species of marsupials are also carnivorous, as were some extinct members of the order Diprotodontia, including extinct kangaroos and thylacoleonids, and some members of the partially extinct clade Metatheria and all members of the extinct superorder Sparassodonta.
The order Peramelemorphia includes the bandicoots and bilbies. All members of the order are endemic to Australia-New Guinea and most have the characteristic bandicoot shape: a plump, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, very large upright ears, relatively long, thin legs, and a thin tail. Their size varies from about 140 grams up to 4 kilograms, but most species are about one kilogram.
Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores 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 common echymipera, or common spiny bandicoot, is a bandicoot. It is long-snouted even by bandicoot standards. The upper parts are a coarse reddish-brown, flecked with spiny buff and black hairs. The tail is short and almost hairless. Length varies between 30 and 40 cm, with the tail accounting for an additional 8 to 10 cm ; the weight is from 0.6 to 2 kg.
The eastern barred bandicoot is a nocturnal, rabbit-sized marsupial endemic to southeastern Australia, being native to the island of Tasmania and mainland Victoria. It is one of three surviving bandicoot species in the genus Perameles. It is distinguishable from its partially-sympatric congener – the long-nosed bandicoot – via three or four dark horizontal bars found on its rump. In Tasmania, it is relatively abundant. The mainland population in Victoria is struggling and is subject to ongoing conservation endeavors.
The common shrew opossums are members of the family Caenolestidae. They are found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. The most recently discovered species is C. sangay.
Perameles is a genus of marsupials of the order Peramelemorphia. They are referred to as long-nosed bandicoots or barred bandicoots.
The short-nosed bandicoots are members of the order Peramelemorphia. These marsupials can be found across Australia, although their distribution can be patchy. Genetic evidence suggests that short-nosed bandicoots diverged from the related long-nosed species around eight million years ago, during the Miocene epoch, and underwent a rapid diversification around three million years ago, during the late Pliocene.
The southern brown bandicoot is a short-nosed bandicoot, a type of marsupial, found mostly in southern Australia. A subspecies in Western Australia was also known as the quenda in South Western Australia. This subspecies was elevated to species in 2018.
The Western barred bandicoot, also known as the Shark Bay bandicoot or the Marl, is a small species of bandicoot; now extinct across most of its former range, the western barred bandicoot only survives on offshore islands and in fenced sanctuaries on the mainland.
The long-nosed bandicoot, a marsupial, is a species of bandicoot found in eastern Australia, from north Queensland along the east coast to Victoria. Around 40 centimetres (16 in) long, it is sandy- or grey-brown with a long snouty nose. Omnivorous, it forages for invertebrates, fungi and plants at night.
The long-nosed echymipera, or long-nosed spiny bandicoot, is a species of marsupial in the family Peramelidae. It is found in Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests.
Monotremes are mammals of the order Monotremata. They are the only group of living mammals that lay eggs, rather than bearing live young. The extant monotreme species are the platypus and the four species of echidnas. Monotremes are typified by structural differences in their brains, jaws, digestive tract, reproductive tract, and other body parts, compared to the more common mammalian types. Although they are different from almost all mammals in that they lay eggs, like all mammals, the female monotremes nurse their young with milk.
Bulungu is an extinct genus of bandicoot-like mammal from Oligo-Miocene deposits of Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, and the Etadunna Formation, Australia. It was first named by Gurovich et al. (2013) and the type species is Bulungu palara. Two additional species, Bulungu campbelli and Bulungu minkinaensis, were also described in 2013. Bulungu muirheadae is the oldest fossil bandicoot recovered to date. An additional three species Bulungu minkinaensis, Bulungu pinpaensis, and Bulungu westermani were named by Travouillon, Beck & Case (2021) allowing for placement of the genus in the superfamily Yaraloidea.
Crash bandicoot is an extinct bandicoot, known from fossils located at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northeast Australia.
