MammalBase - Accepted taxon: Sarcophilus harrisii

Accepted taxon: Sarcophilus harrisii
Taxon:	Sarcophilus harrisii
Rank:	Species
Higher Classification:	DASYUROMORPHIA \| Dasyuridae \| Dasyurinae \| Dasyurini \| Sarcophilus
Reference:	Wilson, Don E., and DeeAnn M. Reeder, eds. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed), JHU Press, 2005.

Fig.1 - Ternary plot of the proximate analysis for the Sarcophilus harrisii diet.
CF (Crude Fibre) 2, ASH (Ash contents) 11, NFE (Nitrogen-Free-Extract) 6, CP (Crude Protein) 65, EE (Ether Extract) 17. See details for the calculations in Lintulaakso, K., Tatti, N. and Žliobaitė, I., 2022. Quantifying mammalian diets. Mammalian Biology, pp.1-15. [DOI]

Table 1. List of Diet Items for Sarcophilus harrisii.
TSN Complete name	Part	Ratio ^a.	Reference(s)
Vertebrata	WHOLE	33.33	Hume,ID, …
Mammalia	WHOLE	13.33	Grzimek,B…
Macropodidae	WHOLE	10.00	Grzimek,B…
Thylogale	WHOLE	6.67	Taylor,RJ…
Phalangeriformes	WHOLE	6.67	Grzimek,B…
Pseudocheirus peregrinus	WHOLE	5.93	Taylor,RJ…
Rattus lutreolus	WHOLE	5.19	Taylor,RJ…
Pseudomys higginsi	WHOLE	4.44	Taylor,RJ…
Antechinus	WHOLE	3.70	Taylor,RJ…
Vertebrata	CARRION	3.33	Grzimek,B…
Aves	WHOLE	2.96	Taylor,RJ…
Calliphora	LARVAE	2.22	Taylor,RJ…
Coleoptera	WHOLE	1.48	Taylor,RJ…
Magnoliopsida	SHOOT	0.74	Taylor,RJ…

^a. Standardized values. See details for the calculations in Lintulaakso, K., Tatti, N. and Žliobaitė, I., 2022. Quantifying mammalian diets. Mammalian Biology, pp.1-15. [DOI]

Table 2. List of Standard Traits for Sarcophilus harrisii.
Trait	Selected Value	All Value(s)	Reference(s)
Dietary category: Eisenberg 1981	Carnivore	Carnivore	– EUAN G. RITCHIE, 2005, 'Predators with Pouches: the Biology of Carnivorous Marsupials', Austral Ecology, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 239-240
Dietary category: Miljutin 2009	Animalivore	Animalivore	– EUAN G. RITCHIE, 2005, 'Predators with Pouches: the Biology of Carnivorous Marsupials', Austral Ecology, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 239-240, Weisbecker, V., Beck, R., Guillerme, T., Harrington, A., Lange-Hodgson, L., Lee, M., Mardon, K., Phillips, M. 2023. Multiple modes of inference reveal less phylogenetic signal in marsupial basicranial shape compared with the rest of the cranium. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 378(1880), pp.None. Available at: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0085.
Locomotion: Eisenberg 1981	Terrestrial	Terrestrial	– Weisbecker, V., Beck, R., Guillerme, T., Harrington, A., Lange-Hodgson, L., Lee, M., Mardon, K., Phillips, M. 2023. Multiple modes of inference reveal less phylogenetic signal in marsupial basicranial shape compared with the rest of the cranium. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 378(1880), pp.None. Available at: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0085.

Table 3. List of Standard Measurements for Sarcophilus harrisii.
Measurement	Location	Unit	n Total	n Unknown	n Female	n Male	Min	Mean	Max	SD	Reference(s)
Body Mass (BM)	nan	g	14	-	14	-	-	5,533.83	-	-	Nelson, A…
Body Mass (BM)	nan	g	-	-	-	-	4,100	-	12,000	-	Freudenth…
Body Mass (BM)	nan	g	5	5	-	-	-	6,667.18	-	-	Engelman,…
Body Mass (BM)	nan	g	19	-	-	19	-	8,255.38	-	-	Nelson, A…
Head-Body Length (HBL)	nan	mm	-	-	-	-	-	640	-	-	Engelman,…
Head-Body Length (HBL)	nan	mm	19	-	-	19	-	585.7	-	-	Nelson, A…
Head-Body Length (HBL)	nan	mm	14	-	14	-	-	532.1	-	-	Nelson, A…
Occipital condyle width (OCW)	nan	mm	5	5	-	-	-	24.59	-	-	Engelman,…

Table 4. List of other Measurements ^b. for Sarcophilus harrisii.
Measurement	Location	Unit	n Total	n Unknown	n Female	n Male	Min	Mean	Max	SD	Reference(s)
brainmass	nan	g	-	-	-	-	-	16	-	-	Engelman,…
skull_length	nan	mm	-	-	-	-	-	134	-	-	Engelman,…
BMR (kJ/h)	nan	kJ/h	-	-	-	-	-	28	-	-	McNab, B.…
femur circumference	nan	mm	-	-	-	-	-	27	-	-	Nelson, A…
humerus circumference	nan	mm	-	-	-	-	-	27	-	-	Nelson, A…
neck length	nan	mm	-	-	-	-	-	43	-	-	Nelson, A…
BMR,mlO2/h	nan	mlO2/h	1	1	-	-	-	1,414	-	-	Genoud, M…

^b. other Measurements. Source Measurements which are not listed on or mapped with the Standard Traits..

Table 5. List of Data Sources for Sarcophilus harrisii.
Taxon	Reference	Match	Status
Sarcophilus harrisii	Nowak,R. M., 1991, Walker's mammals of the world,	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	Geiser,F., 2003, Thermal biology and energetics of carnivorous marsupials, Predators with pouches: the biology of carnivorous marsupials	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	Turner,J., 2004, Mammals of Australia,	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	Gordon,C. L., 2003, A first look at estimating body size in dentally conservative marsupials, Journal of Mammalian Evolution	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sacrophilus harrisii	Hume,ID, 2005, Nutrition of marsupials in captivity, International Zoo Yearbook	51: Name variant or misspelling of the taxon	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	Taylor,RJ, 1986, Notes on the diet of the carnivorous mammals of the Upper Henty River region, western Tasmania,	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus laniarius	Grzimek,B., 2003, Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: Mammals I-V,	50: Synonym	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	Weisbecker, V., Beck, R.M., Guillerme, T., Harrington, A.R., Lange-Hodgson, L., Lee, M.S., Mardon, K. and Phillips, M.J., 2023. Multiple modes of inference reveal less phylogenetic signal in marsupial basicranial shape compared with the rest of the cranium. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 378(1880), p.20220085.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	Engelman, R.K., 2022. Occipital condyle width (OCW) is a highly accurate predictor of body mass in therian mammals. BMC biology, 20(1), p.37.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	DeMers, A.C., 2023. Functional Significance of the Mandible, Tooth Roots, and Tooth Crowns, and their Implications for Fossil Dietary Inference (Doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University).	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	McNab, B.K., 2008. An analysis of the factors that influence the level and scaling of mammalian BMR. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 151(1), pp.5-28.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	Nelson, A., Engelman, R.K. and Croft, D.A., 2023. How to weigh a fossil mammal? South American notoungulates as a case study for estimating body mass in extinct clades. Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 30(3), pp.773-809.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	Genoud, M., Isler, K. and Martin, R.D., 2018. Comparative analyses of basal rate of metabolism in mammals: data selection does matter. Biological Reviews, 93(1), pp.404-438.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Sarcophilus harrisii	Freudenthal, M. and Martín-Suárez, E., 2013. Estimating body mass of fossil rodents. Scripta Geologica, 145, pp.1-513.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted

Citation for this page: [The MammalBase community 2026. / CC BY 4.0. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7462864 Sarcophilus harrisii , Accessed 30th April 2026 at https://mammalbase.net/me/4842]