The Zoochat Photographic Guide to Monotremes and Marsupials

Regarding the taxidermied Planigale above, I just went through the thread and counted up how many species are represented solely by museum specimens.

There are about 375 species in 98 genera included within the limits of this thread. There are currently photos of 150 species total, representing 61 genera. Only 12 species are shown solely as museum specimens (in 12 genera). Five of those species are the sole representatives for their genera. But half of the species (six of the twelve) are extinct and will never be depicted here as living animals.

The twelve species are listed below (the asterisked ones are those which are the sole representative for their genera):


*Marsupial Mole Notoryctes sp.
*Thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus (extinct)
Brown Antechinus Antechinus stuartii
Common Dunnart Sminthopsis murina
*Common Planigale Planigale maculata
*Pig-footed Bandicoot Chaeropus ecaudatus (extinct)
Long-tailed Pigmy Possum Cercartetus caudatus
*Desert Rat Kangaroo Caloprymnus campestris (extinct)
Eastern Hare Wallaby Lagorchestes leporides (extinct)
Toolache Notamacropus greyii (extinct)
Crescent Nail-tail Wallaby Onychogalea lunata (extinct)
Bennett's Tree Kanagroo Dendrolagus bennettianus
 
Several new photos have been added by @Najade recently (all in the Australia Wildlife gallery - Australia - Wildlife - ZooChat).

I have added in three new species to the thread:

Scaly-tailed Possum Wyulda squamicaudata:
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Scaly-tailed Possum (Wyulda squamicaudata) - ZooChat

Rock Ringtail Petropseudes dahli:
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Rock Ringtail Possum (Petropseudes dahli) - ZooChat

Monjon Petrogale burbidgei:
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Monjon (Petrogale burbidgei) - ZooChat

And also Northern Sugar Glider Petaurus breviceps ariel
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Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps ariel) - ZooChat

...which replaces this photo by @Vision which was previously used in the thread:
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Northern sugar glider, Petaurus breviceps ariel - ZooChat


Then I went through the thread and counted up how many Australian marsupials there are left unrepresented. There are about 250 species of Old World marsupials in the thread, of which 137 have photos. Of the 113 unrepresented species, 42 are Australian (the rest are from New Guinea and the surrounding islands). Those 42 Australian species are comprised of 39 dasyurids (all "marsupial mice", i.e. antechinus, dunnarts, planigales, etc), two macropods (one potoroo and one rock wallaby), and one marsupial mole (although the only photos are of museum specimens which are not identified to species, so I suppose that number could count as either one or two).


I also went through and counted up all the photos again to see how the numbers have changed since I last did that in October last year:
Chlidonias said:
@WhistlingKite24 (six photos)
@LaughingDove (13 photos)
@Chlidonias (16 photos)
@Giant Eland (36 photos)
@Najade (45 photos)
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Since then, @WhistlingKite24 has gone up to eight photos (I think all of them are museum specimens from the Queensland Museum); @LaughingDove has gone up two to 15 (although I can't remember which ones I added in); @Chlidonias has gone up two to 18 (two photos of Musky Rat Kangaroo added); @Giant Eland has gone up one to 37 (with a photo of Linnaeus' Mouse Opossum); and @Najade has rocketed up an extra 20 photos to 65. There are 207 photos in the thread, so @Najade produced 31% of them.
 
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Chlidonias said:
https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/categories/australia-wildlife.643/
Those 42 Australian species are comprised of 39 dasyurids (all "marsupial mice", i.e. antechinus, dunnarts, planigales, etc), two macropods (one potoroo and one rock wallaby), and one marsupial mole (although the only photos are of museum specimens which are not identified to species, so I suppose that number could count as either one or two).
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Cape York is the most difficult of the rock-wallabies (other than Nabarlek), the Potoroo might be doable with time and luck (but probably not easy to photograph) and the dasys you usually just run into by accident. Gonna be a toughie to complete.
 
Najade said:
Cape York is the most difficult of the rock-wallabies (other than Nabarlek), the Potoroo might be doable with time and luck (but probably not easy to photograph) and the dasys you usually just run into by accident. Gonna be a toughie to complete.
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You can do it!
 
A new species has been added by @Giant Eland with photos of Andean White-eared Opossum Didelphis pernigra.

I used the photo below, but there are several others of the animal in the gallery for the Quito Zoo: Quito Zoo - ZooChat

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Goura said:
Not sure if you agree but this is a better photo of a Lumholtz's tree kangaroo - of course I have an ulterior motive in wanting it included because it shares my name
Lumholtz's Tree kangaroo - ZooChat
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Thanks, yes I have changed the photo to your new one.

When I'm choosing photos for the threads I try to find all the photos I can in the galleries, then select one (or sometimes more) based on how well it shows the features of the species, and especially I look for photos which show the entire animal if possible. This isn't necessarily the "best" photo on offer because often there will be excellent portrait shots which only show the head or don't show a particular anatomical structure. Quite often I will use a photo of lesser quality because it actually shows the animal's form better than a high quality photo does.

I'm also always ready to replace photos I have used with new photos if they show more details or are better in some other useful way.
 
I have added in a photo of Common Planigale (Planigale maculata) by @Najade and one of Brown Antechinus (Antechinus stuartii) by @Chlidonias - both are photos of live animals replacing photos of taxidermy specimens (by @WhistlingKite24 and @Giant Eland respectively).

I also swapped a photo of a taxidermy Common Dunnart (Sminthopsis murina) by @WhistlingKite24 for one by @Chlidonias as it was a better-looking specimen. There are not yet any photos of live Common Dunnarts in the galleries.

Then I swapped a photo by @Giant Eland of a Brush-tailed Possum of the eastern subspecies Trichosurus vulpecula vulpecula for a better one by @Chlidonias; and swapped a photo by @LaughingDove of a dark-morph Short-eared Possum (Trichosurus caninus) for a better one just uploaded by @WhistlingKite24.

And finally I added in a second photo for Lumholtz's Tree Kangaroo by @WhistlingKite24, and swapped the photo of Matschie's Tree Kangaroo by @Tomek for two others, by @cypher and @ThylacineAlive.

So the number of depicted species in the thread remains unchanged, but two species which were represented only by taxidermy specimens are now shown as live animals. The photos of the dasyurids are all on the first page of the thread, the possums are the second page, and the tree kangaroos are on the fourth page.

Najade, cypher and ThylacineAlive all go up one photo in the totals while Chlidonias goes up three photos, WhistlingKite24 ends up on the same total as before, LaughingDove and Tomek both drop down by one photo, and Giant Eland drops two photos. Overall totals (as they were) are in posts #183 and 199 on the previous page, although Goura and Giant Eland both would need one extra added to those totals anyway (see posts earlier on this page).
 
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Hey Chlidonias, I have a question of the fat-tailed dunnart depicted here. Is this of what subspecie or is it unknown? If it is unknown, in January @Dannelboyz photographed one at Terrick-Terrick National Park meaning that specimen is of subspecie crassicaudata.
 
Jungle Man said:
Hey Chlidonias, I have a question of the fat-tailed dunnart depicted here. Is this of what subspecie or is it unknown? If it is unknown, in January @Dannelboyz photographed one at Terrick-Terrick National Park meaning that specimen is of subspecie crassicaudata.
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The captive population is probably of mixed origins - they are commonly kept in zoos, labs, and by private keepers. The subspecies are probably invalid. Two or three subspecies have been named but the genetic distinctions do not match (at all!) with distributions of those subspecies, and they are mostly no longer used in Australian taxonomy.

I had missed Dannelboyz's photo I think. It is of the (genetic) southeastern population. I have added it into the thread.
 
In this thread there are 245 photos from 43 photographers, representing 173 species. I will keep the numbers on this post updated whenever I change or add photographs. [Last update 25 June 2025]


One photo:
@Arek
@AWP
@Baldur
@Blackduiker
@cypher
@DaLilFishie
@Deer Forest2
@Eagle
@Fishapod
@Hettie
@Jo Kuyken
@KevinB
@Newzooboy
@Ornithorhynchus
@robreintjes
@snowleopard
@Sun Wukong
@Sunbear12
@TeaLovingDave
@ThylacineAlive
@Tim May
@toto98
@Veno
@Vision
@Zia
@ZYBen

Two photos:
@Dannelboyz
@gentle lemur
@Goura
@Maguari
@Michal Sloviak
@Terry Thomas

Three photos:
@alexkant
@Javan Rhino
@ro6ca66
@Tomek
@vogelcommando

Ten or more photos:
@LaughingDove (10 photos)
@Hix (20 photos)
@WhistlingKite24 (21 photos)
@Chlidonias (23 photos)
@Giant Eland (55 photos)
@Najade (63 photos)
 
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@Chlidonias Not sure if you saw, but I put a second picture of Rothschild's Rock-wallaby here. I reckon it might at least be a little better than the current one.
 
Najade said:
@Chlidonias Not sure if you saw, but I put a second picture of Rothschild's Rock-wallaby here. I reckon it might at least be a little better than the current one.
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I think I probably had seen it but was unsure whether it was "better" or not. The one I had used is "sharper" but is at night, the newer one is not well-focused but shows the colouration. What I've just done is swapped them, so the photo used in the thread is the one above (the one taken by day) but I have linked to the night photo.
 
It is a bit ironic that out of all my Rock-wallaby pics the Rothschild ones are probably the worst considering it's the non-habituated species that I had the closest encounter with (of course that was the one time I didn't have my camera on me).
 
Chlidonias said:
Common or Black-eared Opossum Didelphis marsupialis
Variable opinions on subspecies, from being monotypic to having up to seven subspecies: battyi, caucae, colombica, etensis, insularis, marsupialis, tabascensis. Perhaps best treated as having just two subspecies: caucae and marsupialis.


Photo by @Giant Eland at the Smithsonian National Zoo, USA (Mexican/Central American subspecies caucae [if the seven subspecies above are recognised then this is the Mexican tabascensis])

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common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis) | ZooChat
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Turns out this animal is a misidentified Virginia Opossum, and not a common opossum: Virginia opossum

Minnie was first identified as a common opossum, but her distinct markings led Small Mammal House keepers and other mammalogists to question whether that classification was correct. To find out, keepers worked with researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Center for Conservation Genomics. The genomics team analyzed a small sample of Minnie's DNA and discovered that she is actually a Virginia opossum with a very unique coat.
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Andrew_NZP said:
Turns out this animal is a misidentified Virginia Opossum, and not a common opossum: Virginia opossum
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birdsandbats said:
But the coloration of this animal is perfect for Common Opossum! This doesn't make any sense!
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As posted on the Smithsonian news thread:
It all depends on how accurate the tests in question actually were :p and whether it is likelier they screwed up somewhere, or that a Virginia Opossum somehow has a mutation which makes it look not-at-all-like-a-VA and a-lot-like-a-Common.

Of course, even if she *is* a Virginia Opossum she will be a different subspecies to those you are used to seeing.... so at subspecies level she is a lifer for you either way.
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Maybe it's just stubbornness, but I'm not sure how much I believe the test. Minnie looks literally nothing like a Virginia Opossum and spot on for Common.

~Thylo
 
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