Abstract
THE so-called ‘jerboa marsupial’ of Australia (Antechinomys) is widely held to be bipedal and convergent on bipedal saltatory murids or jumping mice (Notomys); various species of these occur in identical localities with Antechinomys in rather arid parts of Australia from Western Australia to Queensland. This interpretation of locomotion in Antechinomys is to be found in most general works on Australian marsupials and, as an example of evolutionary convergence, in zoological text-books1–4.
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References
Jones, F. Wood, The Mammals of South Australia, Part 1 (Govt. Printer, Adelaide, 1923).
Troughton, E. Le G., Furred Animals of Australia, seventh ed. (Angusand Robertson, 1962).
Parker, and Haswell, A Textbook of Zoology, 2, seventh ed. (Macmillan, 1962).
Troughton, E. Le G., in Keast, A., Crocker, R. L., and Christian, C. S., Biogeography and Ecology in Australia (Junk, 1959).
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RIDE, W. Locomotion in the Australian Marsupial Antechinomys. Nature 205, 199 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/205199a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/205199a0
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