View source for Potoroidae

{{Short description|Family of marsupials}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|Rat-kangaroo|Kangaroo rat}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| name = Potoroidae<ref name=msw3>{{MSW3 Groves|pages=56–58}}</ref>
| fossil_range = {{Fossil range|Late Oligocene|recent}}
| image = Bettongia_penicillata.jpg
| image_caption = [[Woylie]] (''Bettongia penicillata'')
| taxon = Potoroidae
| authority = [[John Edward Gray|Gray]], 1821
| type_genus = ''[[Potorous]]''
| type_genus_authority = [[Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest|Desmarest]], 1804
}}

'''Potoroidae''' is a family of [[marsupial]]s, small Australian animals known as [[Bettong|bettongs]], [[Potoroo|potoroos]], and rat-kangaroos. All are rabbit-sized, brown, jumping marsupials and resemble a large [[rodent]] or a very small [[wallaby]].

== Taxonomy ==
The potoroids are smaller relatives of the [[kangaroo]]s and wallabies, and may be ancestral to that group. In particular, the teeth show a simpler pattern than in the [[Macropodidae|kangaroo family]], with longer upper [[incisor]]s, larger [[canine (tooth)|canines]], and four cusps on the [[Molar (tooth)|molars]].<ref name="EoM" /> However, both groups possess a wide [[diastema (dentistry)|diastema]] between the incisors and the cheek teeth, and the potoroids have a similar dental formula to their larger relatives:{{dentition|3.0-1.2.4|1.0.2.4}}

In most respects, however, the potoroids are similar to small wallabies. Their hind feet are elongated, and they move by hopping, although the adaptations are not as extreme as they are in true wallabies, and, like [[rabbit]]s, they often use their fore limbs to move about at slower speeds.

The potoroids are, like nearly all [[Diprotodontia|diprotodonts]], largely [[herbivorous]]. However, while they take a wide variety of plant foods, most have a particular taste for the fruiting bodies of [[fungi]], and often depend on fungi to see them through periods when little else is available to eat in the [[Sclerophyll|dry Australian bush]]. One example of a potoroo that sustains itself on fungi is the [[long-footed potoroo]]. This animal's diet is almost entirely made up of underground fungi. This limits its habitat range as it needs to live in a moist environment, with dense cover to reduce predation from introduced species such as foxes and feral cats.

== Ecology ==
The once populous species of this family played a role in the engineering of soil, dominating the sub-storey of vegetation, and regarded as crucial to the maintenance of the friable soils that they created by digging for fungi and other subsoil foods.<ref name="McDowell2015" />

== Status ==
Four modern species of bettongs are extant and two have become extinct. Bettongs were endangered because settlers took much of their habitat, and the [[red fox]]es they introduced to the continent also killed many of them. At one time, several species lived all over Australia. Today, the Tasmanian bettong lives only in the eastern half of [[Tasmania]], and the northern bettong lives only in three isolated populations in northern [[Queensland]].

The potoroines have exemplified the impact of ecological changes since colonisation of Australia. Most species have become extinct within their former distribution range, and are either totally extinct or conserved only by preservation in isolated habitat and re-population programs.<ref name="McDowell2015">{{cite journal |last1=Prideaux |first1=Gavin J. |last2=Baynes |first2=Alexander |last3=Bunce |first3=Michael |last4=Aplin |first4=Ken P. |last5=Haouchar |first5=Dalal |last6=McDowell |first6=Matthew C. |title=Morphological and molecular evidence supports specific recognition of the recently extinct Bettongia anhydra (Marsupialia: Macropodidae) |journal=Journal of Mammalogy |date=25 April 2015 |volume=96 |issue=2 |pages=287–296 |doi=10.1093/jmammal/gyv006 |language=en |issn=0022-2372|doi-access=free }}</ref>

== Classification ==
{{See also|List of macropodiformes}}
[[Image:Potorous gilberti - Gould.jpg|thumb|right|[[Gilbert's potoroo]]]]
[[File:Bettongia gaimardi.jpg|thumb|right|[[Eastern bettong]]]]
A basal branch of the [[Macropodidae|macropod]]s,<ref name="McDowell2015" /> the three extant genera of the Potoroidae contain eight species.<ref name=msw3/><ref>{{cite web | author = Haaramo, M. | title = Mikko's Phylogeny Archive: Potoroidae - rat-kenguroos | date = 15 November 2005 | access-date = 2008-01-27 | url = http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/users/haaramo/Metazoa/Deuterostoma/Chordata/Synapsida/Metatheria/Notometatheria/Diprotodontia/Potoroidae.htm | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070611051615/http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi//users/haaramo/Metazoa/Deuterostoma/Chordata/Synapsida/Metatheria/Notometatheria/Diprotodontia/Potoroidae.htm | archive-date = 11 June 2007 }}</ref>

The arrangements of the related taxa have seen an arrangement of the subfamilies within Potoroidae, although an earlier classification within the family Macropodidae has also been supported by genetic studies.

A conservative arrangement of modern and fossil taxa may be summarised as:<ref name="Claridge2007" /><ref name=ASM>{{cite web |title=Treeview of Mammalian Taxonomy Hierarchy |url=https://www.mammaldiversity.org/tree.html |access-date=8 January 2025 |website=ASM Mammal Diversity Database}}</ref>

* family '''Potoroidae'''
** subfamily †[[Palaeopotoroinae]]
*** genus †''[[Palaeopotorous]]''
** subfamily [[Potoroinae]]
*** genus †''[[Borungaboodie]]''
*** genus †''[[Milliyowi]]''
*** genus †''[[Purtia]]''
*** genus †''[[Wakiewakie]]''
*** genus †''[[Gumardee]]''
*** tribe [[Bettongini]]
**** genus ''[[Rufous rat-kangaroo|Aepyprymnus]]''
**** genus ''[[Bettong]]ia''
**** genus †''[[Desert rat-kangaroo|Caloprymnus]]''
*** tribe [[Potoroini]]
**** genus ''[[Potoroo|Potorous]]''
** subfamily †[[Bulungamayinae]]
*** genus †''[[Bulungamaya]]''
*** genus †''[[Wabularoo]]''
*** genus †''[[Wanburoo]]''
*** genus †''[[Nowidgee]]''
*** genus †''[[Ganguroo]]''
<!-- ::* genus †''[[Ngamaroo]]'' not in new ref, CN-->

== References ==
{{Reflist|1|refs=
<ref name="Claridge2007">{{cite book |last1=Claridge |first1=A.W. |last2=Seebeck |first2=J.H. |last3=Rose |first3=R. |title=Bettongs, potoroos, and the musky rat-kangaroo |date=2007 |publisher=CSIRO Pub |location=Collingwood, Victoria |isbn=9780643093416}}</ref>

<ref name=EoM>{{cite book|editor= Macdonald, D.|author= Poole, William E.|year= 1984|title= The Encyclopedia of Mammals|publisher= Facts on File|location= New York|pages= [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofma00mals_0/page/862 862–871]|isbn= 0-87196-871-1|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofma00mals_0/page/862}}</ref>
}}

== External links ==
* ARKive - [https://web.archive.org/web/20060502133617/http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Bettongia_lesueur/ images and movies of the burrowing bettong ''(Bettongia lesueur)'']
* {{cite web |title=Potoroidae |publisher=Atlas of Living Australia |url=https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/5dab26f3-b0a7-431a-a31d-b897aeaf0c30}}
* [http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/BHAN-537V4U?open DPIWE information on the Tasmanian Bettong]
* [http://ecos.fws.gov/tess_public/SpeciesReport.do?dsciname=0&dcomname=1&dgroup=2&dstatus=3&dcurrdist=4&sgroup=0&ssciname=1&scomname=2&searchkey=comname&searchkey=sciname&header=TESS%20Search%20Results&searchstring=bettong U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Species Profile]
* [http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/online-resources/fauna/afd/taxa/POTOROIDAE Australian Faunal Directory]

{{Phalangerida|M.|state=collapsed}}
{{Diprotodontia}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q23208}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Potoroids| ]]
[[Category:Marsupials of Australia]]
[[Category:Extant Chattian first appearances]]
[[Category:Mammal families]]
[[Category:Taxa named by John Edward Gray]]