#hypsiprymnodon

[mammalianmammals]

Musky Rat Kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus), family Hypsiprymnodontidae, order Diprotodontia, NE Australia

photograph by Angus Emmott

[animalids]

Musky rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus)

Photo by Steve Arlow

[mammalianmammals]

Musky Rat-Kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus), family Hypsiprymnodontidae, order Diprotodontia, found in the Rain Forests of NE Australia

photograph by Ambika Angela Bone

[animalids]

Musky Rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus)

The musky rat-kangaroo is Australia’s smallest macropod living on the floor of tropical rainforests in far north Queensland. It is active during the day foraging for food particularly early in the morning and at dusk. During the middle of the day and at night it sleeps in a nest of dried leaves and fern.  It has a bounding rather than hopping gait, (more like a rabbit), and can curl it’s tail  around to carry nesting material. It uses an opposable digit on the hind foot to climb trees. The rat-kangaroo has a number of unusual traits that are seen as linking it to more primitive marsupial ancestors. For example, it has reptile-like scales on its feet and tail, engages in a more primitive hopping behavior than most of its kangaroo cousins, and 5 toes on each foot. Some refer to it as a ‘living fossil’.

Classification Animalia - Chordata - Mammalia - Metatheria - Marsupialia - Australidelphia - Diprotodontia - Macropodiformes - Macropodoidea - Hypsiprymnodontidae - Hypsiprymnodon - H. moschatus

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