Bettong

Bettongs[1]
Eastern bettong
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Potoroidae
Subfamily: Potoroinae
Genus: Bettongia
Gray, 1837
Type species
Bettongia setosa
Gray, 1837
Species

The bettongs are species of the genus Bettongia, sometimes referred to as rat-kangaroos. Four extant species are recognised:[1]

In addition, at least two extinct species are known:

  • Bettongia moyesi, Middle Miocene bettong from Riversleigh[2]
  • Nullarbor dwarf bettong, †Bettongia pusilla, known only from the fossil record

The rufous rat-kangaroo (Aepyprymnus rufescens) is sometimes referred to as a bettong (rufous bettong), but this is not strictly correct.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 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. 57–58. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. OCLC 62265494.
  2. Flannery, T.F. and Archer, M, 1987. Bettongia moyesi, a new and plesiomorphic kangaroo (Marsupialia: Potoridae) from Miocene sediments of northwestern Queensland. ‘Possums and Opossums: Studies in Evolution’, Pp.759–67. ed. M. Archer. Surrey Beatty & Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney pdf


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