Acrobates Desmarest, 1818

P. Aplin, Kenneth, N. Armstrong, Kyle, M. Aplin, Lucy, Jenkins, Paula, Ingleby, Sandra & Donnellan, Stephen C., 2025, Hidden diversity in an ecologically specialized genus of Australian marsupials, the feather-tailed gliders, Acrobates (Diprotodontia, Acrobatidae), Zootaxa 5566 (3), pp. 535-564 : 545

Acrobates Desmarest, 1818

Ascobates Anon. in Knight, C. (1839) Penny Encyclopaedia. London. Vol. 14, No. 907, p. 454. [error for Acrobates ].

Cercoptenus Gloger, C. W. L. (1841) . Gemeinnütziges Hand- und Hilfsbuch der Naturgeschichte. Fur gebildete leser aller Stände. Bd I. Breslau: Schulz and Co.

Type species. Didelphis pygmaeus Shaw, 1794 by original monotypy.

Generic diagnosis. Differing externally from Distoechurus , the only other genus of acrobatid possums, in the possession of a patagial membrane between the elbow and ankle joints. Beck et al. (2022) list the following cranial and dental features as diagnosing Acrobates from Distoechurus : differing cranially in having a proportionally larger and more inflated neurocranium, a proportionally shorter and deeper rostrum, a vertically expanded sphenorbital fissure; a deep sulcus that houses the transverse canal vein extends laterally from the carotid canal and is floored ventrally by a strut of the alisphenoid vs by the posterior part of the pterygoid in Distoechurus , a narrower mandibular angular process; differing dentally in having P 3 relatively large and subequal in size to P 1 (reduced in Distoechurus ), M 1-2 square rather than triangular, with the protocone positioned lingual to the paracone, and with more prominent buccal cingula, M 3 relatively large, more than one half the occlusal area of M 2 ( Fig. 6 ).

Figures

FIGURE 6. Images of cranium and mandible of Acrobates via 3D reconstructions from Micro-CT scans. A–E) A. frontalis ANWC CM29876 Julatten Qld, F–J) A. pygmaeus ANWC CM3745 Bondo NSW, K–O) Distoechurus pennatus AMS M14752 Mt Karimui, South Simbu Province, PNG, in dorsal, ventral, lateral cranial views and buccal and occlusal mandible views. The crania, mandibles and teeth of the two Acrobates species are very similar (also see Supplementary Fig. S2 for illustration of variation within each species). Acrobates differs from Distoechurus cranially in having a proportionally larger and more inflated neurocranium, a proportionally shorter and deeper rostrum, a narrower mandibular angular process. See the text for a more extensive description.