Dasyuromorphia is an order of mammals comprising most of the Australian carnivorous marsupials. Members of this order are called dasyuromorphs, and include quolls, dunnarts, the numbat, the Tasmanian devil, and the extinct thylacine. They are found in Australia and New Guinea, generally in forests, shrublands, and grasslands, but also inland wetlands, deserts, and rocky areas. They range in size from the southern ningaui, at plus a tail, to the Tasmanian devil, at plus a tail, though the thylacine was much larger at up to plus a tail. Dasyuromorphs primarily eat invertebrates, particularly insects and arthropods, though most will also eat small lizards or other vertebrates. As the two largest species in the order, Tasmanian devils instead eat carrion of larger mammals in addition to insects, and the thylacine ate larger mammals and livestock. Most dasyuromorphs do not have population estimates, but the ones that do range from 700 to 100,000. The eastern quoll, northern quoll, dibbler, Tasmanian devil, and numbat are categorized as endangered species, while the thylacine was made extinct in 1936.
The seventy-two extant species of Dasyuromorphia are divided into two families: Dasyuridae, containing seventy-one species divided between the thirteen genera in the subfamily Dasyurinae and the four genera of the subfamily Sminthopsinae; and Myrmecobiidae, containing the numbat. There is additionally the family Thylacinidae, containing the extinct thylacine. Dozens of extinct Dasyuromorphia species have been discovered, though due to ongoing research and discoveries the exact number and categorization is not fixed.
Conventions
Conservation status codes listed follow the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Range maps are provided wherever possible; if a range map is not available, a description of the dasyuromorph's range is provided. Ranges are based on the IUCN Red List for that species unless otherwise noted. All extinct species or subspecies listed alongside extant species went extinct after 1500 CE, and are indicated by a dagger symbol "".
Classification
The order Dasyuromorphia consists of two extant families, Dasyuridae and Myrmecobiidae. Dasyuridae is divided into two subfamilies: Dasyurinae, containing forty-three species in thirteen genera, and Sminthopsinae, containing twenty-seven species in four genera. Myrmecobiidae consists of a single species. Additionally, Dasyuromorphia contains the family Thylacinidae, whose only living member, the thylacine, was made extinct in 1936. Many of these species are further subdivided into subspecies. This does not include hybrid species or extinct prehistoric species.
Family Dasyuridae
Subfamily Dasyurinae
Genus Antechinus (antechinuses): ten species
Genus Dasycercus (mulgaras): two species
Genus Dasykaluta (little red kaluta): one species
Genus Dasyuroides (kowari): one species
Genus Dasyurus (quolls): six species
Genus Murexia (dasyures): five species
Genus Myoictis (three-striped dasyures): four species
Genus Neophascogale (speckled dasyures): one species
Genus Parantechinus (dibbler): one species
Genus Phascogale (phascogales): three species
Genus Phascolosorex (marsupial shrews): two species
Genus Pseudantechinus (false antechinus): six species
Genus Sarcophilus (Tasmanian devil): one species
Subfamily Sminthopsinae
Genus Antechinomys (kultarr): one species
Genus Ningaui (ningaui): three species
Genus Planigale (planigale): five species
Genus Sminthopsis (dunnart): eighteen species
Family Myrmecobiidae
Genus Myrmecobius (numbat): one species
Family Thylacinidae
Genus Thylacinus (thylacine): one species (one extinct)
Dasyuromorphs
The following classification is based on the taxonomy described by the reference work Mammal Species of the World (2005), with augmentation by generally accepted proposals made since using molecular phylogenetic analysis, as supported by both the IUCN and the American Society of Mammalogists.