Pseudocheirus


Pseudocheirus is a genus of ringtail possums. It includes a single living species, the common ringtail possum of Australia, as well as the fossil Pseudocheirus marshalli from the Pliocene of Victoria.
Other species have previously been included in this genus. Most other ringtails—the lemur-like ringtail, the rock-haunting ringtail, and the various species of Pseudochirulus and Pseudochirops—were classified in Pseudocheirus until the 1980s or 1990s. A second ringtail from the Victorian Pliocene, Petauroides stirtoni, was originally named as a Pseudocheirus, but is now considered to be more closely related to the greater glider.
The genus was erected by William Ogilby in 1837, the same author later using then correcting the spelling Pseudochirus that is now regarded as a nomenclatural synonym used in error by authors such as Oldfield Thomas.
Taxonomic opinion favours treatment of the western population, Pseudocheirus peregrinus occidentalis, as a separate species, though the contradictory evidence from current studies have prevented this recommendation being published.

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