Leadbeater's Possum

Open encyclopedia reference

Leadbeater's possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne. In June 2025 it was reported that an image of a sole possum was recorded on a camera trap in October 2024 near Yarrangobilly Caves, Southern NSW, within the Kosciuszko National Park. It is primitive, relict, and non-gliding, and, as the only species in the petaurid genus Gymnobelideus, represents an ancestral form. Formerly, Leadbeater's possums were moderately common within the very small areas they inhabited; their requirement for year-round food supplies and tree-holes to take refuge in during the day restricts them to mixed-age wet sclerophyll forest with a dense mid-story of Acacia. The species was named in 1867 after John Leadbeater, the then taxidermist at the Museum Victoria. They also go by the common name of fairy possum. On 2 March 1971, the State of Victoria made the Leadbeater's possum its faunal emblem.

Wikipedia contributors, Leadbeater's possum; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:35:58.750506+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Gymnobelideus leadbeateri McCoy, 1867

Name authority

McCoy, 1867

Common name

Leadbeater's Possum

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Diprotodontia

Family

Petauridae

Genus

Gymnobelideus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassMetatheria Huxley, 1880
11. orderDiprotodontia Owen, 1866
12. suborderPhalangeriformes Szalay in Archer, 1982
13. superfamilyPetauroidea Bonaparte, 1838
14. familyPetauridae Bonaparte, 1838
15. subfamilyDactylopsilinae Kirsch, 1977
16. genusGymnobelideus McCoy, 1867
17. speciesGymnobelideus leadbeateri McCoy, 1867

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 9 records assigned to Petauridae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. M’Coy, Frederick. (1867). On a new genus of Phalanger. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 3, Vol. 20, No. 36, Part 118. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3HQJZ. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.