Bandicoot

Bandicoots are a group of over 20 species of small to medium-sized marsupials. They are mostly active at night, eat both plants and animals, and belong to the order Peramelemorphia. These animals are native only to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago to the east and the islands of Seram and Halmahera to the west. The name "bandicoot" originally came from the Telugu word *pandikokku*, meaning "pig-rat," and was first used for the unrelated Indian bandicoot rat.

Bandicoots have V-shaped faces with long, prominent noses that look like small trunks. These snouts, along with their sharp claws, make them good diggers. Their teeth are small but fine, suited for chewing food easily. Like most marsupials, males have a forked penis. Bandicoot embryos have a chorioallantoic placenta connecting them to the uterine wall, in addition to the choriovitelline placenta found in all marsupials, though this placenta is small and lacks chorionic villi.

They range in length from 11 to 31 inches (28 to 79 cm) and weigh between 0.4 and 3.5 pounds (0.18 to 1.6 kg). A bandicoot has a long pointed snout, large ears, a short body, and a long tail. Its fur can be brown, black, golden, white, or grey. Strong hind legs are well adapted for jumping. They also have low body temperatures and low basal metabolic rates, which help them survive in hot, dry climates. A low total water evaporative rate and effective panting mechanisms further aid their survival in high temperatures.

Classification within Peramelemorphia was once thought straightforward, with two families: short-legged, mostly herbivorous bandicoots and longer-legged, nearly carnivorous bilbies. More recently, the situation has become more complex. Bandicoots from New Guinean and far-northern Australian rainforests were first placed in a separate family, Peroryctidae, but later reunited with other bandicoots in the family Peramelidae. Within Peramelidae, New Guinean species are split into four genera across two subfamilies (Peroryctinae and Echymiperinae), while "true bandicoots" are in the subfamily Peramelinae. The extinct pig-footed bandicoot has its own family, Chaeropodidae.

The order Peramelemorphia includes the superfamily Perameloidea, with unclassified fossil genera (*Galadi*, *Bulungu*, *Madju*); the family Thylacomyidae (genus *Macrotis* and fossil genera *Ischnodon*, *Liyamayi*); the extinct family Chaeropodidae (genus *Chaeropus*); and the family Peramelidae. Peramelidae contains the subfamily Peramelinae (genera *Isoodon* and *Perameles*), subfamily Peroryctinae (genus *Peroryctes*), and subfamily Echymiperinae (genera *Echymipera*, *Microperoryctes*, *Rhynchomeles*). There is also the extinct superfamily Yaraloidea with the family Yaralidae (genus *Yarala*).

The word "bandicoot" is an Anglicised version of a Telugu word meaning "pig-rat." What are now called bandicoots are not found in India; the name originally referred to unrelated large rats (rodents) in the genera *Bandicota* and *Nesokia*, now called bandicoot rats. Robert Blust reconstructed the form *mansar* or *mansər* for Proto-Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, but this reconstruction is doubted by Schapper (2011). In the Abinomn language of Papua, Indonesia, it is known as *aine*. Indigenous peoples of the Australia–New Guinea region have various names for bandicoots; for example, the Kaurna people call the southern brown bandicoot the *bung* or *marti*.