The bandicoot is a member of the
orderPeramelemorphia, and the word "bandicoot" is often used informally to refer to any peramelemorph, such as the
bilby.[2] The term originally referred to the unrelated Indian
bandicoot rat from the
Telugu word pandikokku (పందికొక్కు) wherein pandi means pig and kokku means rat.[3]
Characteristics
Bandicoots have V-shaped faces, ending with their prominent noses similar to proboscis. These noses make them, along with bilbies, similar in appearance to
elephant shrews and extinct
leptictids, and they are distantly related to both mammal groups. With their well-attuned snouts and sharp claws, bandicoot are
fossorial diggers. They have small but fine teeth that allow them to easily chew their food.[4]
Bandicoots can reach 11 to 31 in (28 to 79 cm) in length, and 0.4 to 3.5 lb (0.18 to 1.6 kg) in weight. A bandicoot has a long, pointed snout, large ears, a short body, and a long tail. Its body is covered with fur that can be brown, black, golden, white, or grey in colour. Bandicoots have strong hind legs well adapted for jumping.
Bandicoots also have low body temperatures and low basal metabolic rates which aides their survival in hot and dry climates. They also have low total water evaporative rate and effective panting mechanisms which further aide their survival in hotter temperatures.
[7]
Classification
Classification within the Peramelemorphia was previously thought to be straightforward, with two families in the order—the short-legged and mostly
herbivorous bandicoots, and the longer-legged, nearly
carnivorous bilbies. In recent years, however, the situation clearly has become more complex. First, the bandicoots of the
New Guinean and far-northern Australian
rainforests were deemed distinct from all other bandicoots and were grouped together in the separate family
Peroryctidae. More recently, the bandicoot families were reunited in the
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 now-extinct
pig-footed bandicoot, which has been given its own family, Chaeropodidae.
The name bandicoot is an Anglicised version of a word from the Telugu language of South India which translates as 'pig-rat'.[17] What are now called bandicoots are not found in India and bandicoot was originally applied to completely unrelated mammals—several species of large rats (
rodents). Today, these species, belonging to the genera Bandicota and Nesokia, are referred to as bandicoot rats.
Bandicoots have different names by the indigenous peoples of the Australia-New Guinea region. For example, the
Kaurna people refer to the southern brown bandicoot as the bung or the marti.[25][26]
References
^Bandicoot. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 7 October 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
^"Bandicoots". Department of Environment and Science, Queensland. 17 September 2009.
Archived from the original on 8 March 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
^"Metabolic and ventilatory physiology of the Barrow Island golden bandicoot (Isoodon auratus barrowensis) and the northern brown bandicoot (Isoodon macrourus)". Journal of Thermal Biology. 33 (6): 337–344. August 2008.
^Strahan, R. (1995). Mammals of Australia. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
^Travouillon, K. J.; Gurovich, Y.; Beck, R. M. D.; Muirhead, J. (2010). "An exceptionally well-preserved short-snouted bandicoot (Marsupialia; Peramelemorphia) from Riversleigh's Oligo-Miocene deposits, northwestern Queensland, Australia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 30 (5): 1528.
Bibcode:
2010JVPal..30.1528T.
doi:
10.1080/02724634.2010.501463.
S2CID86726840.
^Travouillon, K. J.; Gurovich, Y.; Archer, M.; Hand, S. J.; Muirhead, J. (2013). "The genus Galadi: Three new bandicoots (Marsupialia, Peramelemorphia) from Riversleigh's Miocene deposits, northwestern Queensland, Australia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33 (1): 153–168.
Bibcode:
2013JVPal..33..153T.
doi:
10.1080/02724634.2012.713416.
hdl:11336/5382.
S2CID53525712.
^Gurovich, Yamila; Travouillon, Kenny J.; Beck, Robin M. D.; Muirhead, Jeanette; Archer, Michael (2013). "Biogeographical implications of a new mouse-sized fossil bandicoot (Marsupialia: Peramelemorphia) occupying a dasyurid-like ecological niche across Australia". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 12 (3): 265.
doi:
10.1080/14772019.2013.776646.
hdl:11336/5406.
S2CID140187280.
^Travouillon, Kenny J.; Archer, Michael; Hand, Suzanne J.; Muirhead, Jeanette (2014). "Sexually Dimorphic Bandicoots (Marsupialia: Peramelemorphia) from the Oligo-Miocene of Australia, First Cranial Ontogeny for Fossil Bandicoots and New Species Descriptions". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 22 (2): 141.
doi:
10.1007/s10914-014-9271-8.
S2CID14643777.
^"Bandicoots". BushHeritageMVC. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
^Blust, Robert. 1982. The linguistic value of the Wallace Line. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 138:231–50.
^Blust, Robert. 1993. Central and Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian. Oceanic Linguistics 32:241–93.
^Blust, Robert. 2002. The history of faunal terms in Austronesian languages. Oceanic Linguistics 41:89–139.
^Blust, Robert. 2009. The position of the languages of eastern Indonesia: A Reply to Donohue and Grimes. Oceanic Linguistics 48:36–77.
^Blust, Robert; Trussel, Stephen (2010).
"*mansar: bandicoot, marsupial rat". Austronesian Comparative Dictionary. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
^Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568.
ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.