They are among the few terrestrial placental mammals that colonised Australia without human intervention.

The tail is 60–180 mm and the weight is recorded from 12 to 90 g. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats from rainforests to plains and grasslands.

Food also varies with some species eating seeds, roots and insects while others feed primarily on grasses.

The pebble-mound mice are unique in creating mounds of stones around their burrows.

The name Pseudomys means "false mouse"[1] presumably in reference to both its similarity and uniqueness from "true mice" in the genus Mus.