Antechinus brevicaudatus Krefft, 1872b

Parnaby, Harry E., Ingleby, Sandy & Divljan, Anja, 2017, Type Specimens of Non-fossil Mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney, Records of the Australian Museum 69 (5), pp. 277-420 : 401

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.3853/j.2201-4349.69.2017.1653

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:68F315FF-3FEB-410E-96EC-5F494510F440

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7555794

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03DD87C8-FFC5-7349-1BBA-FDDEFABA9058

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Felipe (2021-08-21 08:43:27, last updated 2024-11-24 23:13:46)

scientific name

Antechinus brevicaudatus Krefft, 1872b
status

incertae sedis

Antechinus brevicaudatus Krefft, 1872b incertae sedis

The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (new series) vol. XIV, nu. 644, p. 554, col. 1. (2 November 1872) .

Common name. The “Short-tailed Antechinus ” of Krefft.

Current name. Indeterminate, presumably Antechinus , perhaps Sminthopsis .

Holotype. Krefft’s original specimen is probably PA.661, sex not determined, skin mount. The only data in the Palmer Register are the original entry by Palmer: “ Antechinus brevicaudatus , King’s Island Bass Strait, Mounted”. The collector, donor and date are not given but Krefft (1868c) mentions that he had “recently” received a new Antechinus from the Bass Strait Islands . PA.661 was not located in the AM Collection in 2014 nor was it sighted in inventories of the past few decades.

Type locality. Probably King Island, Bass Strait ( Krefft, 1872b).

Comments. We have not located this name in the literature but it could be regarded as a valid description. Krefft’s verbatim account is:

“Smallest of the tribe—supposing that my specimen, which is still unique, is adult. The skull is not in a condition to be examined. General colour dark, sepia brown, almost black, tail about an inch in length; fur very coarse. Found on some of the islands of Bass’s Straits, I believe King’s Island.”

The identity of this taxon cannot be determined until material assigned by Krefft is located, but it is doubtful if such material, possibly a single specimen, has survived. However, a specimen index card, written in old writing likely in the first decade of the 20th century, states: “ Antechinus brevicaudata [sic] skull, no data”. Possible contenders for the identity of this entity, other than it being a valid but unrecognized taxon, include A. swainsonii ( Waterhouse, 1840) or A. minimus (É. Geoffroy, 1803b) and possibly Sminthopsis leucopus (J. Gray, 1842) . Krefft (1872b) based his concepts of Antechinus taxa on Gould (1863b), and recognized A. swainsonii and A. affinus ( Gray, 1841) (= A. minimus (É. Geoffroy, 1803b)) , both of which Krefft listed as being from Tasmania.

Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, E. 1803 b. Note sur les especes du genre dasyure. Bulletin des sciences par la Societe Philomathique de Paris 3 (81): 258 - 259 [misprinted as 158 - 159].

Gould, J. 1863 b. The Mammals of Australia. London: John Gould. Volumes 1 - 3 https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 112962

Gray, J. E. 1841. Contributions towards the geographical distribution of the Mammalia of Australia, with notes on some recently discovered species, in a letter addressed to the Author. Appendix C. In Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-west and Western Australia, During the Years 1837, 38, and 39, Under the Authority of Her Majesty's Government. Describing many newly discovered, important, and fertile districts, with observations on the moral and physical condition of the aboriginal inhabitants, & c., ed. G. Grey, pp. 397 - 414. London: T. & W. Boone. Vol. 2.

Gray, J. E. 1842. Description of some new genera and fifty unrecorded species of Mammalia. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (series 1) 10: 255 - 267. https: // doi. org / 10.1080 / 03745484209445232

Krefft, G. 1868 c. The Vertebrata of Tasmania, recent and fossil. Transactions of the Royal Society of New South Wales for 1867 1: 30 - 41. [Reproduced as an appendix in Papers Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasm., 1868, pp. 91 - 105.]

Krefft, G. 1872 b. Natural History. The native cat family, or Dasyuridae (continued). The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (new series) XIV (644): 554, col. 1 - 2, 2 November.

Waterhouse, G. R. 1840. Description of a new marsupial mammal, belonging to the genus Phascogale. The Magazine of Natural History (new series) 4: 299 - 301.

AM

Australian Museum

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Dasyuromorphia

Family

Dasyuridae

Genus

Antechinus