Macrotis
Paragalia Gray, 1841
Peragale Lydekker, 1887
Phalacomys anon., 1854
Thalaconus Richardson, Dallas, Cobbold, Baird and White, 1862
Thylacomys Blyth, 1840[2]
Macrotis is a genus of desert-dwelling marsupial omnivores known as bilbies or rabbit-bandicoots;[3] they are members of the order Peramelemorphia. At the time of European colonisation of Australia, there were two species. The lesser bilby became extinct in the 1950s; the greater bilby survives but remains endangered. It is currently listed as a vulnerable species. It is on average 55 cm (22 in) long, excluding the tail, which is usually around 29 cm (11 in) long. Its fur is usually grey or white, it has a long pointy nose and very long ears, hence earning its nick-name, the rabbit-eared bandicoot.
Macrotis means ‘big-eared’ (macro- + ōt- ‘ear’) in Greek, referring to the animal's large, long ears.[4]The genus name was first proposed as a subgeneric classification, which after a century of taxonomic confusion was eventually stabilised as the accepted name in a 1932 revision by Ellis Troughton. In reviewing the systematic arrangement of the genus, Troughton recognised three species names, including one highly variable population with six subspecies.[5]
The family's current name Thylacomyidae is derived from an invalid synonym Thylacomys, meaning 'pouched mouse', from the Ancient Greek thýlakos (θύλακος, 'pouch, sack') and mys (μῦς, 'mouse, muscle'),[3] sometimes misspelt Thalacomys.[6][7]
The term bilby is a loanword from the Yuwaalaraay Aboriginal language of northern New South Wales, meaning long-nosed rat. It is known as dalgite in Western Australia, and the nickname pinkie is sometimes used in South Australia.[8] The Wiradjuri of New South Wales also call it "bilby".[9]Gerard Krefft recorded the name Jacko used by the peoples of the lower Darling in 1864, emended to Jecko in 1866 along with Wuirrapur from the peoples at the lower Murray River.[5]
The placement of the population within taxonomic classification has changed in recent years. Vaughan (1978)[full citation needed] and Groves and Flannery (1990)[full citation needed] both placed this family[which?] within the family Peramelidae. Kirsch et al. (1997)[full citation needed] found them to be distinct from the species in Peroryctidae (which is now a subfamily in Peramelidae). McKenna and Bell (1997)[full citation needed] also placed it in Peramelidae, but as the sister of Chaeropus in the subfamily Chaeropodinae.[10]
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