Phalangeridae
Phalangeridae are a family of mostly nocturnal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and eastern Indonesia as far west as Sulawesi. They include cuscuses, brushtail possums, and related animals. Most species live in trees but they occupy a wide range of forests from alpine woodlands to tropical jungles. Some have been introduced to new areas by humans long ago.
Size in this family varies. The smallest is the Sulawesi dwarf cuscus, about 34 cm long. The largest is the black-spotted cuscus, around 70 cm long and weighing up to 5 kg. They usually have dense fur that can be grey, black, or reddish-brown with spots or stripes. A distinctive feature is that part of the tail has bare skin. Their teeth are low-crowned. Forefeet have claws, while hind feet typically do not, but the hind feet have an opposable first toe to help grip branches. In most species, both the first and second digits of the forefeet are opposable.
Most Phalangeridae are folivores, eating leaves and using a large fermentation chamber (a large cecum) to extract nutrients from fibrous plant material. They also eat fruit and some invertebrates. The ground cuscus is an exception: it is carnivorous and less arboreal.
Gestation lasts about 16–17 days in the studied species. Females have a well-developed pouch and usually raise only one or two young at a time. Adults are generally solitary and defend territories using scent-marking, saliva, urine, or dung. Most members keep epipubic bones, but Trichosurus is unusual among marsupials for shifting some trunk muscles to the pelvis and adopting a more placental-like breathing style, reducing the benefits of the epipubic bones for lung ventilation.
Classification follows Beck et al. (2022). Living genera include Ailurops, Phalanger, Spilocuscus, Strigocuscus, Trichosurus, and Wyulda (with extinct genera such as Archerus, Eocuscus, and Onirocuscus also noted).
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:18 (CET).