Peramelidae Gray, 1825

Beck, Robin M. D., Voss, Robert S. & Jansa, Sharon A., 2022, Craniodental Morphology And Phylogeny Of Marsupials, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2022 (457), pp. 1-353 : 215-217

Peramelidae Gray, 1825

CONTENTS: Echymipera , Isoodon , Microperoryctes , Perameles (fig. 39), Peroryctes , and Rhynchomeles .

STEM AGE: 16.5 Mya (95% HPD: 12.4–20.6 Mya).

CROWN AGE: 8.8 Mya (95% HPD: 6.3–12.3 Mya).

UNAMBIGUOUS CRANIODENTAL SYNAPOMORPHIES: Orbitosphenoid laterally inapparent or absent (char. 15: 0→1; ci = 1.000), and dP3 very small, nonoccluding, and structurally simplified, or absent (char. 120: 1→2; ci = 0.118).

COMMENTS: Our dated Bayesian total-evidence analysis recovers monophyly of Peramelidae sensu Van Dyck and Strahan, 2008 (= Echymiperinae + Peramelinae + Peroryctinae), to the exclusion of Thylacomyidae and Chaeropodidae ( fig. 33), as do our undated Bayesian total-evidence analysis (fig. 32) and all our molecular analyses (figs. 27–29). As already discussed, a similar topology has been recovered in most recent molecular and total-evidence analyses ( Westerman et al., 2012; Kear et al., 2016; Travouillon and Phillips, 2018). Of the two craniodental features that optimize as unambiguous synapomorphies of Peramelidae , a laterally inapparent or absent orbitosphenoid is unique to this clade and shows no homoplasy among our terminals, whereas presence of a structurally simplified dP3 serves to distinguish peramelids from Macrotis and Chaeropus , in which dP3 is better developed. However, the morphology of dP 3 in † Bulungu , † Galadi and † Yarala , which fall outside the crown clade (Perameloidea) in our analyses, is currently unknown.

† Crash bandicoot from the middle Miocene AL90 site (which has been radiometrically dated as ~14.8 Mya; Woodhead et al., 2014) at Riversleigh World Heritage Area was described by Travouillon et al. (2014a) as a member of the peramelid crown group. In support of this, † Crash has been recovered in a clade with Perameles and Isoodon in some recent analyses ( Travouillon et al., 2014 a, 2015b: fig. 12a; Chamberlain et al., 2015), although not others ( Travouillon et al., 2015b: fig. 12b; Kear et al., 2016). However, † Crash considerably predates our late Miocene estimate for the most recent common ancestor of Peramelidae . Apart from † Crash , the oldest known peramelids are probably early Pliocene taxa that have been referred to Perameles (P. † allinghamensis, P. † bowensis, and P. † wilkinsorum; Warburton and Travouillon, 2016; Travouillon et al., 2017).