Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index True Bandicoots Northern Brown Bandicoot Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Subclass: Marsupialia Order: Peramelemorphia Family: Peramelidae Subfamily: Peramelinae Genera  Perameles  Isoodon  Chaeropus A bandicoot is any of about 8 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the subfamily Peramelinae (the true bandicoots) of the family Peramelidae; or in a broader sense, any of about 21 species of fairly similar animals in the order Peramelemorphia. This page describes the true bandicoots. Classification within the Peramelemorphia used to be simple: there were thought to be two families in the order—the short-legged and mostly herbivorous bandicoots, and the longer-legged, more nearly carnivorous bilbies. In recent years, however, it has become clear that the rainforest bandicoots of New Guinea and far-northern Australia are distinct from all other bandicoots, and these remain within the order but are now grouped together in the separate family Peroryctidae. The bilbies, on the other hand, despite their distinct appearance and habits, are more closely related to the true bandicoots than they look, and they are now regarded as merely a subfamily within the Peramelidae. ORDER PERAMELEMORPHIA Family Peramelidae Subfamily Peramelinae: Western Barred Bandicoot, Perameles bougainville Eastern Barred Bandicoot, Perameles gunnii Long-nosed Bandicoot, Perameles nasuta Desert Bandicoot, Perameles bougainville (extinct) Golden Bandicoot, Isoodon auratus Northern Brown Bandicoot, Isoodon macrourus Southern Brown Bandicoot, Isoodon obesulus Pig-footed Bandicoot, Chaeropus ecaudatus (extinct) Subfamily Thylacomyinae: bilbies, 2 species Family Peroryctidae: rainforest bandicoots, about 11 species in 4 genera This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.