planigale

[prettygoodword]

planigale (plan-uh-GAIL) - n., any of a handful of species of small carnivorous marsupials (genus Planigale) of Australia and New Guinea.


The smallest marsupials:


Thanks, WikiMedia!

Basically, the marsupial mouse, filling pretty much the same ecological niches, though they're slightly smaller in size. Exactly how many species, and which are better thought of as subspecies of others, is under debate, but five are solidly recognized. The genus name was coined in 1928 by Ellis Troughton from Ancient Greek roots plani-, flat (for their flattened skulls) + galéē, weasel, when he was splitting off the genus from Phascogale, which was named in 1824 by Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck from Ancient Greek pháskōlos, pouch + galéē, weasel.

---L.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

Two new species have just recently been entered into scientific taxonomy (I always hesitate to say “discovered”, because the local indigenous people may well have been aware of them.)

https://www.qut.edu.au/news?id=189211#:~:text=“Of%20our%20two%20new%20species,colouration%20and%20a%20shorter%20face.

And, given that they’re marsupials, how minute must their newborn pups be! And nonetheless vertebrates and everything!

[prettygoodword]

Yanno, the news coverage of that may have been how I stumbled over the word.

[octahedrite]

Teeny.

[prettygoodword]

They're about halfway between a mouse and shrew in size.