Dasyuromorphia Gill 1872

Families: 3 families with 23 genera and 71 species:

Family Thylacinidae Bonaparte 1838 (1 genus with 1 species)

Family Myrmecobiidae Waterhouse 1841 (1 genus with 1 species and 2 subspecies)

Family Dasyuridae Goldfuss 1820 (21 genera with 69 species and 15 subspecies)

Discussion: Recognized as an order by Aplin and Archer (1987) who proposed a new syncretic classification of the marsupials. Includes the Australian component of Marsupicarnivora (see Ride, 1964 b). Some authors include Thylacinidae and Myrmecobiidae in the Dasyuridae (Vaughan, 1978:39); but Ride (1964 b), Archer and Kirsch (1977), Kirsch and Calaby (1977:15), and Archer (1982) retained three families; their monophyly is supported by DNA sequence studies (Krajewski et al., 2000).