Mammals of Greater Melbourne
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About Mammals
Monotremes
Marsupials
Placental Mammals
List of Melbourne Mammals
References
About Mammals
All mammals are covered with hair and feed their young on milk produced by the mother. Mammals evolved from reptiles about 200 million years ago.
Mammals are made up of three main types, monotremes, marsupials and placental mammals.
Monotremes
World wide there are only two families within the order Monotremata - the platypus (Ornithorbynchus anatinus) and spiny anteaters or echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus).
There are two species of anteater - the long beaked echidna, which is now only found in New Guinea, and the common echidna, which is found throughout Australia.
Monotremes are unique in that they are the only egg-laying mammals. They have fur, suckle their young and share other characteristics typical of mammals.
Monotremes have several other characteristics typical to both reptiles and birds, beyond the laying of eggs, in the shape of their skulls and some of their soft parts. Monotremes have a single gland for both excretion and reproduction called a cloaca.
Monotremes offer a unique insight into the past evolution of our modern day mammals, being similar in many ways to the fossil remains of their Mesozoic ancestors.
Marsupials
Marsupials are another special order of mammals. They differ from placental mammals in a number of ways. Marsupial young are born early in their development and kept in pouches called marsupium.
Female marsupials have a kind of yolk in their womb to supply the necessary nutrients to their unborn young, instead of a placenta. Like monotremes marsupials have a cloaca, while their reproductive organs of marsupials are different again.
The most famous Australian marsupials are the kangaroo (also the largest) and the koala. Kangaroos were once common throughout Greater Melbourne. Australia is home to the most abundant and diverse number of marsupials in the world.
Placental Mammals
Placental mammals, like humans, have a placenta inside the womb to supply nutrients to their unborn young. Melbourne's native inland placental mammals are mostly bats and rodents, such as the Water Rat. Our native dog the dingo is said to have been introduced long ago.
List of Melbourne Mammals
Brush-tailed Phascogales (Phascogale tapoatafa)
Brush-tailed Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)
Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)
Dingo (Canis lupus dingo)
Eastern Barred Bandicoot (Perameles gunnii)
Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)
Eastern Quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus)
Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)
Fat-tailed Dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata)
Gould's Wattled Bat (Chalinolobus gouldii)
Grey-headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)
Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus)
Large-footed Myotis(Myotis adversus)
Long-nosed Bandicoot (Perameles nasuta)
Platypus (Ornithorhynchus paradoxus)
Ring-tailed Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus)
Spotted-tailed Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus)
Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps)
Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor)
Water Rat (Hydromys chrysogaster)
White Striped Mastiff Bat (Tadarida australis)
References
:: Marshall, Brett & Bainbridge, Brian. Creek Life: flora and fauna of the Merri Creek Valley, Merri Creek Management Committee, East Brunswick, Victoria 1995.
:: Peter H. Raven & George B. Johnson. Biology, Times Mirror / Mosby College Publishing 1989.
:: Museum Victoria Online "Bioinformatics" - Victorian Mammals
:: Australian Wildlife Series, Monotremes and Placentals, Bay Books, NSW 1981.
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