Australasian mammal specimens in the collections of Merseyside County Museums.

Abstract

Many of the Australasian mammals once housed in the Liverpool Free Public Museum were originally obtained from John Gould, John Gilbert, John Macgillivray and Frederick Strange by the thirteenth Earl of Derby, who bequeathed them to the city in 1851. Those specimens which survive in the present Merseyside County Museums comprise 20 monotremes; 128 marsupials, including the types of Sminthopsis macroura (Gould, 1845) and Perameles arenaria Gould, 1944; 4 bats and 33 rodents, including the types of Notomys longicaudatus (Gould, 1844), Pseudomys australis lineolatus (Gould, 1845), Pseudomys nanus (Gould, 1858), Pseudomys australis oralis Thomas, 1921 and Rattus sordidus (Gould, 1858).