Two Bandicoot Species Found in Museum Drawers

Two bandicoot species new to science were sitting in museum collections all along, a ten-year study of hundreds of specimens has concluded. [Two new bandicoot species discovered after trawling through museum drawers — Travouillon et al., via Phys.org (Australian Journal of Taxonomy, DOI 10.54102/ajt.3ej9p)]

Published in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy, the reassessment of the genus Isoodon recognizes two additional species and several new subspecies. One, the little brown bandicoot of South Australia, is believed to have gone extinct about a century ago. [Two new bandicoot species discovered after trawling through museum drawers — Travouillon et al., via Phys.org (Australian Journal of Taxonomy, DOI 10.54102/ajt.3ej9p)]

Kenny Travouillon and co-authors spent a decade on the drawers, comparing genetics and morphology across hundreds of historical and modern short-nosed bandicoot specimens held in museums around the world. The work redrew the group's map. The quenda, the southeastern brown bandicoot, turns out to range more widely than the books said, which suggests it may be less threatened overall than previously believed, though its South Australian populations remain small and, the authors caution, still need ongoing protection. [Two new bandicoot species discovered after trawling through museum drawers — Travouillon et al., via Phys.org (Australian Journal of Taxonomy, DOI 10.54102/ajt.3ej9p)]

The same revision tightens the map for the southern brown bandicoot: its range is more restricted than once thought, and a species already listed as endangered may face greater risk under the new classification. That's why a naming paper matters outside taxonomy. Conservation law protects species as they're defined, counts them as they're mapped, and funds them as they're listed. A species recognized a century after it vanished changes none of its own story. It changes the paperwork that decides its relatives' chances. [Two new bandicoot species discovered after trawling through museum drawers — Travouillon et al., via Phys.org (Australian Journal of Taxonomy, DOI 10.54102/ajt.3ej9p)]