It resembles a mouse with big round ears and the tiniest little pouch to hold its young. But this isn’t your average rodent, in fact, it’s the world’s smallest marsupial. Yet, it should never be underestimated. The long-tailed planigale is an itty-bitty but fierce carnivorous mammal found in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Linette Umbrello is a biologist at the Western Australian Museum who has spent her career studying the planigale, a tiny creature that makes its home down under. The smallest species can reach about the size of half a mouse, and the largest about three times that.
There are currently seven recognized planigale species, and more are being discovered each year. Last year alone, Umbrello and her team discovered and published on two new varieties of planigales: The orange-headed Pilbara planigale known as Planigale kendricki and the cracking-clay Pilbara planigale known as Planigale tealei.
