A very small mouse-like carnivorous marsupial with a long tail, native to Australia and New Guinea.
Genus Planigale, family Dasyuridae: several species.
Common Planigales inhabit rainforest, eucalypt forest, heathland, marshland, grassland and rocky areas where there is surface cover, and usually close to water....
Another surprise was the apparent association of Planigale populations with tall grasslands on the Tweed Coast.
Origin
1940s: modern Latin, from Latin planus 'flat' (referring to the flat skull of the marsupial), on the pattern of phascogale.