Phalangers Sentence Examples

Here may be noticed three genera of large extinct marsupials from the Pleistocene of Australia whose affinities appear to ally them to the wombat-group on the one hand and to the phalangers on the other.

The affinities of the creature are clearly with the phalangers.

Cuscuses and phalangers form a numerous group, all the members of which are arboreal, and some of which are provided with lateral expansions of skin enabling them to glide from tree to tree like flying-squirrels.

Numerous types more or less nearly allied to the phalangers, such as Burramys and Triclis have also been described, as well as a flying form, Palaeopetaurus.

Of more interest is the imperfectly known Wynyardia, from older Tertiary beds in Tasmania, which apparently presents points of affinity both to phalangers and dasyures.

Australia is inhabited by at least if o different species of marsupials, which is about two-thirds of the known species; these have been arranged in five tribes, according to the food they eat, viz., the grass-eaters (kangaroos), the root-eaters (wombats), the insect-eaters (bandicoots), the flesh-eaters (native cats and rats), and the fruit-eaters (phalangers).

Huxley in 1880 briefly suggested the arboreal origin, or primordial treehabitat of all the marsupials, a suggestion abundantly confirmed by the detailed studies of Dollo and of Bensley, according to which we may imagine the marsupials to have passed through (r) a former terrestrial phase, followed by (2) a primary arboreal phase - illustrated in the tree phalangers - followed by (3) a secondary terrestrial phase - illustrated in the kangaroos and wallabies - followed by (4) a secondary arboreal phase - illustrated in the tree kangaroos.

Although intimately connected with the cuscuses and phalangers by means of the musk-kangaroo, the kangaroos and wallabies, together with the rat-kangaroos, are easily distinguishable from other diprotodont marsupials by their general conformation, and by peculiarities in the structure of their limbs, teeth and other organs.

By means of the little musk-kangaroo, the cuscuses and phalangers, constituting the family Phalangeridae, are so closely connected with the kangaroos, or Macropodidae, that in the opinion of some naturalists they ought all to be included in a single family, with three sub-families.

The true phalangers, or opossums of the colonists, constitute the genus Trichosurus, while the ring-tailed species are known as Pseudochirus; the latter ranging to New Guinea.

Extinct Marsupials Reference has been made to the Australasian Pleistocene genera Phascolonus, Diprotodon, Nototherium and Thylacoleo, whose affinities are with the wombats and phalangers.