Thanks. Actually that is Antechinus, not Antichinus. Even my spell checker picks this up. I believe I have pointed this out before. My background is that
La Trobe Uni zoology department had a bit of an obsession with Antechinus in the years I was there (got my BSc Hons there) with some deviation to other marsupials. So we all had a go at learning about them. I never found out what the name Antechinus means,
but I reckon we should avoid an assumption that it is anti anything that is chinus. They already have enough of an attitude.
I guess it would be explained in
Macleay, 1841: Antechinus – pouched 'mice', antechinuses, broad-footed marsupial 'mice'.
About the living bats: A quick check has failed to resolve this for me. I have found this: Both the extant New Zealand bat species are skilled fliers. Somewhere
I saw film of them preferring to run around on the ground.
Philip
From: David Rees [
Sent: Friday, 12 January, 2018 7:45 AM
To: <>
Subject: [canberrabirds] More on bizarre (non) flying things from NZ
Here is a recent scientific paper that describes an extinct non-flying burrowing bat, found as a fossil in the south island of NZ.
Evolution is a wonderful thing. NZ still has bats that hunt on the ground like shrews or Antichinus.
