Dasyurid

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Any small carnivorous marsupial belonging to the family Dasyuridae, native to Australia and New Guinea and including quolls and dunnarts
2. A member of the Dasyuridae family of carnivorous marsupials, typically small predators found in Australia and nearby New Guinea
3. Describing or belonging to the family of carnivorous pouched mammals that includes quolls, dunnarts and the Tasmanian devil

Etymology: Dasyurid belongs to the family Dasyuridae, the group of small carnivorous marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea and nearby islands, which includes quolls, antechinuses and the Tasmanian devil's relatives. The name is a scientific coinage built from Greek roots: "dasys," meaning "hairy" or "shaggy," and "oura," meaning "tail." The family's name follows the usual zoological pattern of taking a genus name, here "Dasyurus," and adding a suffix that marks it as a family. The "-id" ending is the standard Latinized suffix for members of a biological family, which is why the adjective and noun forms are the same word. A dasyurid is any animal in that family, and calling something dasyurid describes its place in the classification rather than any particular trait. The hairy tail that gave the genus its name is a fitting clue, since many members have fur-covered tails, though the tails vary widely across the group.