The short-nosed bandicoots (genus Isoodon) are members of the order Peramelemorphia. These marsupials can be found across Australia, although their distribution can be patchy. Genetic evidence suggests that short-nosed bandicoots diverged from the related long-nosed species around eight million years ago, during the Miocene epoch, and underwent a rapid diversification around three million years ago, during the late Pliocene.
While the IUCN lists only three species in the genus, Australian sources consider there to be five species of the genus with two subspecies of I. obesulus being elevated to full species status.