Fossil Occurrences of Cercartetus Nanus (Marsupialia: Burramyidae) in South Australia

Cercartetus nanus (Diprotodontia: Burramyidae)

“…However, Cercaertus is a junior synonym of Trichosurus and not of Cercartetus (Harris 2006a;Wakefield 1963). Cercartetus is a reference to the prehensile tail (from the Greek kerkos) and nanus is derived from the Latin word for dwarf and is a remark on the animal's very small size.…”

“…Cercartetus is a reference to the prehensile tail (from the Greek kerkos) and nanus is derived from the Latin word for dwarf and is a remark on the animal's very small size. Historically, a large number of vernacular names have been used for this species (Harris 2006a) and there are a few names recorded that were used by the Tasmanian Aboriginals (Plomley 1976). Iredale and Troughton (1934) accepted 3 subspecies: C. nanus nanus for Tasmania, C. n. britta for southeastern South Australia, and C. n. unicolor for New South Wales and Victoria.…”

“…Cercartetus nanus has been recorded from 57 fossil and subfossil deposits (Harris 2006a(Harris , 2008Harris and Garvey 2006;Harris and Goldingay 2005c). The oldest fossil bones of C. nanus are from Cathedral Cave in the Naracoorte Caves National Park World Heritage Site where dates as old as 528,000 years 6 41,000 SD have been established.…”