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Bandicoot

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Mammals

                   iBandicoots
            Scientific classification

   Kingdom:    Animalia
   Phylum:     Chordata
   Class:      Mammalia
   Infraclass: Marsupialia
   Order:      Peramelemorphia
               (in part)

                             Families and Genera

   Chaeropodidae
     * Chaeropus

   Peramelidae
     * Isoodon
     * Perameles
     * Peroryctes
     * Echymipera
     * Microperoryctes
     * Rhynchomeles

   A bandicoot is any of about 20 species of small to medium-sized,
   terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. The word
   bandicoot is an anglicised form of the Telugu word pandi-kokku,
   (loosely, pig- rat) which originally referred to the unrelated Indian
   Bandicoot Rat. The other two species of peramelemorphs are the bilbies.

   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
   situation is more complex. First, the bandicoots of the New Guinean and
   far-northern Australian rainforests were deemed distinct from all other
   bandicoots, and these were grouped together in the separate family
   Peroryctidae. More recently, the bandicoot families were reunited in
   Peramelidae, with the New Guinean species split into four genera in two
   subfamilies, Peroryctinae and Echymiperinae, while the "true
   bandicoots" occupy the subfamily Peramelinae. The only exception is the
   extinct Pig-footed Bandicoot, which has been given its own family,
   Chaeropodidae.

   The embryos of bandicoots, unlike other marsupials, form a
   placenta-like organ that connects it to the uterine wall. The function
   of this organ is probably to transfer nutrients from the mother;
   however the structure is small compared to those of the placentalia.
     * ORDER PERAMELEMORPHIA
     * Family Thylacomyidae: bilbies, 2 species
     * Family Chaeropodidae: Pig-footed Bandicoot
     * Family Peramelidae
          + Subfamily Peramelinae
               o Genus Isoodon: short-nosed bandicoots
               o Genus Perameles: long-nosed bandicoots
          + Subfamily Peroryctinae
               o Genus Peroryctes: New Guinean long-nosed bandicoots
          + Subfamily Echymiperinae
               o Genus Echymipera: New Guinean spiny bandicoots
               o Genus Microperoryctes: New Guinean mouse bandicoots
               o Genus Rhynchomeles: Ceram Bandicoot
     * Superfamily Yaraloidea
          + Family Yaralidae: fossil bandicoots, 2 species

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandicoot"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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