AY Honors/Marsupials/Answer Key

Template:Taxobox Quolls or native cats (genus Dasyurus) are carnivorous marsupials, native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. Adults are between 25 and 75 cm long, with hairy tails about 20-35 cm long. Females have six to eight nipples and develop a pouch—which opens towards the tail—only during the breeding season, when they are rearing young. The babies are the size of a grain of rice. Quolls live both in forests and in open valley land. Though primarily ground-dwelling, they have developed secondary arboreal characteristics. Their molars and canines are strongly developed.

Taxonomy

Within the genus Dasyurus, the following species exist:

• New Guinean Quoll, Dasyurus albopunctatus, New Guinea
• Western Quoll or Chuditch, Dasyurus geoffroii, western Australia
• Northern Quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus, northern Australia
• Tiger Quoll or Spotted Quoll, Dasyurus maculatus, eastern Australia
• Bronze Quoll, Dasyurus spartacus, New Guinea
• Eastern Quoll, Dasyurus viverrinus, Tasmania (formerly mainland eastern Australia)

note: accompanying photo is mislabeled as a "tiger" Quoll--should read "a 'spotted' Quoll".

References

• Template:MSW3 Groves

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