ACROBATIDAE ( Strahan, 1987 )

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

Family ACROBATIDAE ( Strahan, 1987)

Diagnosis. The diagnosis provided by Aplin, in Aplin and Archer (1987) remains fully applicable.

Remarks. The authorship of Family Acrobatidae has been attributed erroneously in recent works as Aplin & Archer (1987) or Aplin, in Aplin & Archer (1987), e.g., Flannery (1994); Jackson & Thorington (2012). Family Acrobatidae was proposed by Aplin (in Aplin & Archer 1987) but the publication of this work post-dates Strahan’s (1987) usage of the name which was published earlier in that year. Strahan unambiguously proposed Family Acrobatidae as new, accompanied by a diagnosis: “The family is distinguished from the other phalangeroids by the feather-like tail”. Although a type genus was not explicitly stated, this did not become a formal requirement under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature until after 1999. Aplin (in Aplin & Archer 1987) provided a more detailed diagnosis and a discussion of the possible phylogenetic affinities of the group. Beck et al. (2022: 241) provided a more detailed diagnosis based on craniodental apomorphies. Phylogenetic analyses of mitogenomes and genome scale nuclear gene datasets support a sister relationship of acrobatids with a clade comprising, Petauridae , Pseudocheiridae and Tarsipedidae ( Mitchell et al. 2014; Duchene et al. 2018).