Sminthopsis murina

The slender-tailed dunnart, also known as the common dunnart in Australia, is a dasyurid marsupial. It has an average body length of 7 to 12 centimeters (2.8–4.7 in) with a tail length of 5.5 to 13 centimetres (2.2–5.1 in). It weighs 25–40.8 grams for males and 16.5–25.4 grams for females.

Sminthopsis murina

Greg Tasney · CC BY-SA 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
Slender-tailed 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 least 762 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 15 of 16 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 16 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence137 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences774 ka11.7 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

16 occurrences of Sminthopsis murina 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

16 occurrences

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 murina and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sminthopsis murina and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

238 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Sminthopsis murina, 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

12 references

Each of the 16 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. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Sminthopsis murina

Credit
Greg Tasney
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sminthopsis murina was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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. Waterhouse 1837