Mammal craniodental remains in owl pellets provide new tooth row measurements for the threatened Julia Creek dunnart (Sminthopsis douglasi)

A. M. Baker; C. L. Charley; D. Lockhart; E. L. Gray

doi:10.1071/AM25004

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Mammal craniodental remains in owl pellets provide new tooth row measurements for the threatened Julia Creek dunnart (Sminthopsis douglasi)

A. M. Baker ^A ^B ^* , C. L. Charley

^A , D. Lockhart ^A and E. L. Gray

^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A School of Biology and Environmental Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.

^B Biodiversity and Geosciences Program, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane, Qld, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: am.baker@qut.edu.au

Handling Editor: Mark Eldridge

Australian Mammalogy 47, AM25004 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM25004

Submitted: 22 January 2025 Accepted: 19 February 2025 Published: 12 March 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Archer’s 1981 morphological revision of Sminthopsis included only a few individuals of the newly described Sminthopsis douglasi. Here, we used craniodental material sourced from owl pellets collected in north-west Queensland, and additional skeletal material from Queensland Museum specimens, to compile a detailed series of tooth row measurements for S. douglasi (85 specimens, 14 locations). These were compared with existing measurements for co-occurring and geographically proximate congeners, namely, S. macroura, S. crassicaudata, S. murina and S. virginiae. Overall, Julia Creek dunnarts had consistently longer tooth-row measurements than those of the other dunnart species examined. This research will be useful for those seeking to confidently identify S. douglasi by using limited craniodental remains.

Keywords: barn owl, carnivorous marsupial, Dasyuridae, mandible, skull, species identification.

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