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Like some New World monkeys, some opossums have prehensile tails. Like most marsupials, many females have a pouch. The tail and parts of the feet bear scutes. The stomach is simple, with a small cecum. [9] Like most marsupials, the male opossum has a forked penis bearing twin glandes. [20] [21] [9]
The prehensile tail is predominantly a New World adaptation, especially among mammals. [1] Many more animals in South America have prehensile tails than in Africa and Southeast Asia. It has been argued that animals with prehensile tails are more common in South America because the forest there is denser than in Africa or Southeast Asia. [3]
Opossums have long, hairless, prehensile tails, which can be used to grab branches and carry small objects. They also have hairless ears and a long, flat nose. Opossums have 50 teeth, more than any other North American land mammal, [15] and opposable, clawless thumbs on their rear limbs.
Terrestrial species of vertebrates that do not need to swim, e.g. cats and kangaroos, instead use their tails for balance; [2] [3] [4] and some, such as monkeys and opossums, have grasping prehensile tails, which are adapted for arboreal locomotion. [5]
The common brushtail possum has large and pointed ears. Its bushy tail (hence its name) is adapted to grasping branches, prehensile at the end with a hairless ventral patch. [7] [8] Its fore feet have sharp claws and the first toe of each hind foot is clawless, but has a strong grasp. [8]
Gracile mouse opossums, excluding the fat-tailed mouse opossum, in general, have a prehensile tail that is thin and very long. The tails of mouse opossums are naked. [2] Mouse opossums have ears that are, both, large and naked. [2] General opossums, including Gracilinanus species, have noses that are pointed.
Their tails are only semi-prehensile, unlike the fully prehensile tail characteristic of the North American opossum. [3] The fur is greyish brown over almost the entire body, although fading to a paler shade on the underparts, and with near-white fur on the feet. Only the base of the tail has fur, the remainder being almost entirely hairless. [5]
The coat is smooth with gray and brown hairs, and notably darker along the midline of the back than the flanks. A gray band, seen in other mouse opossums, is absent or inconspicuous. The face is significantly paler than the coat, hence its name. [3] [7] The tail is prehensile, with only sparse hairs, albeit in a similar color to those on the ...