Short-nosed bandicoots | |
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Southern brown bandicoot Isoodon obesulus | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
Order: | Peramelemorphia |
Family: | Peramelidae |
Subfamily: | Peramelinae |
Genus: |
Isoodon (Desmarest, 1817) |
Type species | |
Didelphis obesula (Shaw, 1797) |
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Species | |
The short-nosed bandicoots (genus Isoodon) 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.
There are three species in this genus: