Brush-tailed mulgara
| Brush-tailed mulgara | |
|---|---|
| Dasycercus blythi | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
| Order: | Dasyuromorphia |
| Family: | Dasyuridae |
| Genus: | Dasycercus |
| Species: | D. blythi
|
| Binomial name | |
| Dasycercus blythi (Waite, 1904)
| |
| Brush-tailed mulgara range | |
The brush-tailed mulgara (Dasycercus blythi) is a medium sized carnivorous Australian marsupial species. The species is sexually dimorphic with males being much larger than females. Their body length is 12 to 17 cm (4.7 to 6.7 in), and tail length is 6–10 cm (2.4–3.9 in). They store fat in their tail, which at times can be over 16 mm (0.63 in) wide at the base.
The taxonomy of mulgara species has been rather torturous. In 2006, the species names were decided as Dasycercus blythi and D. cristicauda (crest-tailed mulgara). However, a 2023 study decided that the scientific name of the crest-tailed mulgara should be resurrected from synonymy with D. cristicauda back to D. hillieri, and proposed three additional new species of mulgara.