Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Marsupials have the typical characteristics of mammals—e.g., mammary glands, three middle ear bones, (and ears that usually have tragi, [3] varying in hearing thresholds [4]) and true hair. [5] There are, however, striking differences as well as a number of anatomical features that separate them from eutherians .
The common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis), also called the southern or black-eared opossum [2] or gambá, and sometimes called a possum, is a marsupial species living from the northeast of Mexico to Bolivia (reaching the coast of the South Pacific Ocean to the central coast of Peru), including Trinidad and Tobago and the Windwards in the Caribbean, [2] where it is called manicou. [3]
The largest difference between the opossum and non-marsupial mammals is the bifurcated penis of the male and bifurcated vagina of the female (the source of the term didelphimorph, from the Greek didelphys, meaning "double-wombed"). [38] Opossum spermatozoa exhibit sperm-pairing, forming conjugate pairs in the epididymis.
Diprotodontia (/ d aɪ ˌ p r oʊ t ə ˈ d ɒ n t i ə /, from Greek "two forward teeth") is the largest extant order of marsupials, with about 155 species, [2] including the kangaroos, wallabies, possums, koalas, wombats, and many others. Extinct diprotodonts include the hippopotamus-sized Diprotodon, and Thylacoleo, the so-called "marsupial ...
The common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula, from the Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox", previously in the genus Phalangista [4]) is a nocturnal, semiarboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, native to Australia and invasive in New Zealand, and the second-largest of the possums.
Didelphis is a genus of New World marsupials. The six species in the genus Didelphis, commonly known as Large American opossums, are members of the opossum order, Didelphimorphia. The genus Didelphis is composed of cat-sized omnivorous species, which can be recognized by their prehensile tails and their tendency to feign death when cornered.
Notamacropus is a genus of small marsupials in the family Macropodidae, commonly known as wallabies (among other species). The term is derived from the Latin nota "stripe" and macropus "kangaroo", referencing the distinct facial stripe of many extant genus members and their phylogenetic relationship to other kangaroos.
The possums of Australia, whose name derives from their similarity to the American species, are also marsupials, but of the order Diprotodontia. The Virginia opossum is known in Mexico as tlacuache , tacuachi , and tlacuachi , from the Nahuatl word tlacuatzin .