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Of all the Macropodidae, grey kangaroos cover the widest range in Australia. There is considerable geographical variation in morphology and opinions have differed as to the taxonomic status of the various kinds. This investigation supports a primary division of grey kangaroos into two species-eastern and western on the basis of serological, reproductive, and morphological distinctions. The eastern species, M. giganteus, is found in all eastern states, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, plus south-east South Australia, while the western species, M. fuliginosus, occurs in south-western Western Australia and southern South Australia including Kangaroo I., extending into western Victoria and south-western New South Wales, where the ranges of the two species overlap. Transferrin polymorphism was detected by starch-gel electrophoresis, revealing three phenotypes, A, AB, and B. Western populations possess all three phenotypes, but eastern populations have type A only. Western and eastern grey kangaroos also have characteristic antigens. Eastern animals when immunized with sera from western kangaroos produced antibodies which during double-diffusion analysis reacted with sera from western individuals. Likewise the reverse immunization acted as expected. Thus the origin of individuals, from western or eastern populations, could be determined. Hybrids were not found in the field, but matings between captive western males and eastern females the reverse mating never occurred produced hybrids whose antigens were characteristic of both parental types. In eastern grey kangaroos the mean length of oestrous'cycle, 45.6 days, and gestation period, 36.4 days, is longer than in western kangaroos, with mean lengths 34.9 and 30.6 days. Oestrous cycles of hybrid females and gestation periods of all hybrids are of intermediate length, 37.6 and 34.1 days respectively. The colour of eastern grey kangaroos ranges from light to dark grey while western kangaroos are brown. The history of the previously described taxa and the effect of the current findings on the nomenclature relating to grey kangaroos are discussed.

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A suite of comparisons among ten radiolabelled dasyurid species and one outgroup bandicoot was generated using the hydroxyapatite chromatography method of DNA-DNA hybridisation; comparisons were also made with four other dasyurid taxa. Square matrices of DELTA-T(m)s, DELTA-Modes, and DELTA-T50H's were complied and corrected for reciprocity, additivity, and, in the case of DELTA-T(m)'s, normalised percentages of hybridisation. These matrices were analysed using the FITCH algorithm in Felsenstein's PHYLIP (Version 3.1), and all distinct topologies were jackknifed to test for internal consistency. Additionally, uncorrected DELTA-T(m), DELTA-Mode, and DELTA-T50H datasets were bootstrapped and subjected to phylogenetic analysis to assess measurement imprecision. FITCH trees from folded matrices including unlabelled species or those for which heteroduplex comparisons were incomplete were also calculated and jack-knifed, both before and after correction. With the exception of limited measurements to Dasyuroides byrnei and Dasykaluta rosamondae, which showed affinities with Dasyurus spp., the final tree was fully resolved: Sminthopsis crassicaudata and S. murina, together with the more distant Planigale maculata, are the sister-group to all other dasyurids examined, which in turn comprise two clades. One of these includes Dasyurus, Dasyuroides, and Dasykaluta; the other, 'true' Antechinus (A. flavipes, A. stuartii, A. swainsonii) as a sister-group to Antechinus melanurus plus Murexia longicaudata, with Phascogale tapoatafa representing a probable sister-group to all Antechinus with Murexia. DNA-DNA hybridisation provides no support for the genus Satanellus: most of the trees linked Dasyurus albopunctatus with D. maculatus instead of D. hallucatus. Similarly, Antechinus flavipes and A. stuartii appear to be closer to each other than either is to A. swainsonii. The historical biogeographic significance of the adopted phylogeny is considered, and it is concluded that the putative early Miocene separation of Australia and New Guinea was probably too early to account for the independent evolution of the New Guinean clade.

Andersen's 1912 monograph on megachiropterans remains the definitive work on the systematics of this group. Andersen argued that the Macroglossinae, containing the eonycterine and notopterine sections, are a monophyletic sister-group to other fruitbats (i.e. Andersen's Rousettus, Cynopterus and Epomophorus sections). Two recent molecular studies (DNA hybridisation and restriction mapping of ribosomal cistrons), as well as an analysis of female reproductive characters, challenge the monophyly of the Macroglossinae and several of Andersen's other conclusions such as the phylogenetic position of Nyctimene. We performed a cladistic analysis on 36 morphological characters, including 33 that were gleaned from Andersen, to determine whether phylogenetic hypotheses based on modem phylogenetic methods are in agreement with Andersen's original conclusions and to compare morphological and molecular phylogenetic hypotheses. Minimum-length trees based on parsimony are largely consistent with Andersen and support (1) a monophyletic Macroglossinae, within which the eonycterine section is paraphyletic with respect to a monophyletic notopterine section, (2) a monophyletic Cynopterus section, excepting the exclusion of Myonycteris, (3) a monophyletic Epomophorus section, excepting the exclusion of Plerotes, and (4) a paraphyletic Rousettus section, with several of the Rousettus-like forms branching off near the base of the tree. Bootstrapping analyses on a reduced data-set that included taxa shared in common with the DNA hybridisation study did not provide strong support (greater than or equal to 95%) for any clades but did provide moderate support (greater than or equal to 70) for several clades, including a monophyletic Macroglossinae. These findings are in marked contrast to the DNA hybridisation phylogeny. A high index of between-data-set incongruence is further evidence for the clash between DNA hybridisation and morphology. A phylogenetic framework was constructed on the basis of morphological data and DNA hybridisation data using a criterion of moderate support and shows little resolution, whereas employing a criterion of strong support produced a framework resolving several additional nodes. One implication of this framework is that characteristic macroglossine features such as a long tongue with a thick carpet of filiform papillae have evolved independently on several occasions (or evolved once and were lost several times). Rates of character evolution for the morphological characters employed in our analysis were calculated using divergence times estimated from DNA hybridisation data. Rates have apparently been fastest in the interior branches, and slower along the external branches, which suggests an early adaptive radiation in the history of fruitbats.