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Collection > Order (Mammals) > Order Information (Diprotodontia)
Diprotodontia
Diprotodontia, from the Greek δύο (dúo, “two”) + πρῶτος (prôtos, “foremost, front”) + ὀδόντ- (odónt-), stem of ὀδούς (odoús, “tooth”), means “two forward teeth”, in reference to the fact that these animals, in general, have two upper incisors facing forward.
Kangaroos, wallabies, bettongs, potoroos, koalas, wombats, possums, gliders, and cuscus.
Photos
DISTRIBUTION
Australia, New Guinea and the surrounding islands.
SIZE
The smallest species have a head-body length of 70 mm and a weight of 10 g; while the largest species have a head-and-body length of 1.3–1.6 m and a weight of 55 to 90 kg.
MORPHOLOGY
Size and body structure varies a lot between families in this order. There are bear-like forms, opossum-like forms, rat-like forms and the unique kangaroo-like forms.
One of the factors that helps in the characterization of Diprotodontia is their “diprotodont” condition: they have a pair of large, procumbent incisors on the lower jaw, a common feature of many early groups of mammals and mammaliforms. The diprotodont jaw is short, usually with three pairs of upper incisors, and no lower canines. Also, there is the “syndactyly”, a fusing of the second and third digits of the foot up to the base of the claws, which leaves the claws themselves separate.
ECOLOGY & HABITAT
Broadleafs forests (tree kangaroos, cuscus, gliders, possums), open woodland, sclerophyll (koalas, wallabies), savannas, grasslands, xeric shrublands (kangaroos, potoroos), etc.
DIET
They are almost all herbivores. A few insectivorous and omnivorous are known, and the potoroos are almost unique among vertebrates in being largely fungivorous.
REPRODUCTION
They are polygynandrous (both males and females mate with multiple individuals).
Females have two uteri and two vaginas. Young develop in one or both uteri and are born through a third opening. The third opening develops during the female birth period and is a temporary structure in most species. The young make their way to the mother's nipples (usually in a pouch) and grow there. The litter size is usually small, limited by the number of mother’s nipples.
REFERENCES
- Duszynski, D. W. (2016). Chapter 5 - Order Peramelemorphia—Eimeriidae. In. D. W. Duszynski (Ed.), The Biology and Identification of the Coccidia (Apicomplexa) of Marsupials of the World (pp. 87-92). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-802709-7.00005-9.
- Phillips, M. J., Celik, M. A., Beck, R. M. D. (2023). The evolutionary relationships of Diprotodontia and improving the accuracy of phylogenetic inference from morphological data. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology, 47(4), 686-698. https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2023.2184492.
- Mitchell, K. J., Pratt, R. C., Watson, L. N., Gibb, G. C., Llamas, B., Kasper, M., Edson, J., Hopwood, B., Male, D., Armstrong, K. N., Meyer, M., Hofreiter, M., Austin, J., Donnellan, S. C., Lee, M. S. Y., Phillips, M. J., Cooper, A. (2014). Molecular Phylogeny, Biogeography, and Habitat Preference Evolution of Marsupials. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 31(9), 2322–2330. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msu176.
- Dickman, C. R. (2018). Biodiversity in Australia: An Overview. In T. Pullaiah (Ed.), Global Biodiversity - Volume 4: Selected Countries in the Americas and Australia. Apple Academic Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/9780429433634-12.
- Wagner, G. P. (2018). Comparative Placentation-Mammals. In M. K. Skinner (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Reproduction (Second Edition) - Volume 2 (pp. 455-461). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801238-3.64668-8.