Mammals
Fat-Tailed Dunnart
Sminthopsis crassicaudata · also called fat-tailed dunnarts
Small enough to be mistaken for a mouse, a fat-tailed dunnart hunts insects across the open ground at night, its energy reserves stored safely in a thickened tail, and its genome now at the centre of an ambitious scientific effort to bring back the extinct thylacine.
Overview
The fat-tailed dunnart, Sminthopsis crassicaudata, is a tiny, mouse-sized carnivorous marsupial native to desert and grassland habitat across southern and central Australia. Its distinctive fat-storing tail, ability to enter energy-saving torpor, and status as the extinct thylacine’s closest living relative make it one of the most scientifically significant small marsupials found anywhere in Australia today.
A small marsupial with an outsized scientific role
Unassuming in size, the fat-tailed dunnart has become central to one of the more ambitious conservation science projects underway, its genome serving as the closest living template researchers have for attempting to recreate a functional thylacine.
Status
Least Concern, remaining common and widespread across suitable desert and grassland habitat throughout southern and central Australia.
Fat-Tailed Dunnart: common questions
Why is the fat-tailed dunnart important to thylacine research?
This species is considered the closest living relative of the extinct thylacine, making it a central focus of ongoing genetic research that aims to edit its genome toward that of the thylacine using DNA recovered from preserved museum specimens, an ambitious and ethically debated de-extinction effort.
What is the fat-tailed dunnart's tail used for?
This species stores fat reserves in its distinctively thickened, carrot-shaped tail, drawing on these energy reserves during periods when food is scarce, an adaptation that helps it survive fluctuating conditions across its arid and semi-arid range.
Is the fat-tailed dunnart a rodent?
No, despite its small, mouse-like size and appearance, this species is a carnivorous marsupial only distantly related to rodents, feeding on insects and other invertebrates rather than the plant-based diet typical of most true rodents.
How does the fat-tailed dunnart cope with cold or food shortages?
This species can enter brief periods of torpor, lowering its body temperature and metabolic rate to conserve energy during cold nights or when food is temporarily scarce, a short-term energy-saving strategy shared with several other small marsupial species.