The short-nosed bandicoots (genusIsoodon) are members of the orderPeramelemorphia. These marsupials can be found across Australia, although their distribution can be patchy.[citation needed] Genetic evidence suggests that short-nosed bandicoots diverged from the related long-nosed species around eight million years ago, during the Miocene epoch, and underwent a rapid diversification around three million years ago, during the late Pliocene.[2]
Species and subspecies
While the IUCN lists only three species in this genus,[3] as many as five species in this genus with the two subspecies of I. obesulus raised to full species.[4]