Sminthopsis leucopus
The white-footed dunnart is a marsupial that occurs on Tasmania and mainland Australia. It occurs along the coast and in inner Gippsland and Alpine areas up to 400 metres near Narbethong. In southern New South Wales, the white-footed dunnart is known to occur at elevations at least as high as 1000 metres. The length from snout to tail tip is 14–20 cm (5.5–7.9 in) of which head and body are 7–11 cm (2.8–4.3 in) and the tail 7–9 cm (2.8–3.5 in) long. They weigh 19–27 g (0.67–0.95 oz).

ellenabest · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- White-footed dunnartPBDB
- Sits inside
- SminthopsisPBDB
- Diet
- insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Dasyuridae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Sminthopsis
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia
Time the record covers
At most 2.6 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
2 occurrences of Sminthopsis leucopus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
2 occurrences- Pleistocene50%
- Holocene50%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Sminthopsis leucopus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Sminthopsis leucopus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
112 taxa- Aepyprymnus rufescens2 sites
- Bettongia penicillata2 sites
- Chelodina longicollis2 sites
- Hydromys2 sites
- Petaurus breviceps2 sites
- Pseudocheirus peregrinus2 sites
- Pseudomys2 sites
- Rattus2 sites
- Trichosurus vulpecula2 sites
- Wallabia bicolor2 sites
- Antechinus flavipes1 site
- Antechinus minimus1 site
- Antechinus stuartii1 site
- Aves1 site
- Bettongia1 site
- Bettongia lesueur1 site
- Caretta caretta1 site
- Carphodactylus1 site
- Cercartetus caudatus1 site
- Cercartetus nanus1 site
- Chelodina (Chelydera) rugosa1 site
- Chelodina novaeguineae1 site
- Chelonia1 site
- Chelonia mydas1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Sminthopsis leucopus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
2 references- The upper fossil fauna of the Henschke fossil cave, Naracoorte, South Australia1
- Tropical Rainforests of North Queensland: Their Conservation Significance1
Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Sminthopsis leucopus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- ellenabest
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Sminthopsis leucopus · MVZ:Mamm:MVZ:Mamm:126983
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itSminthopsis through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1842