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The opossum lifespan is unusually short for a mammal of its size, usually only one to two years in the wild and as long as four or more years in captivity. Senescence is rapid. [37] Opossums are moderately sexually dimorphic with males usually being larger, heavier, and having larger canines than females. [36]
Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Didelphimorphia is an order of marsupial mammals.Members of this order are called didelphimorphs, or opossums.They are primarily found in South America, though some are found in Central America and Mexico and one, the Virginia opossum, ranges into the United States and Canada.
Virginia opossum, native to North America; White-eared opossum, native to South America; Phalangeriformes, also called (o)possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi Common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), a common possum in Australian urban areas, invasive in New Zealand
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 Virginia opossum is the original animal named "opossum", a word which comes from Algonquian wapathemwa, meaning "white animal". Colloquially, the Virginia opossum is frequently just called a "possum". [8] The term is applied more generally to any of the other marsupials of the families Didelphidae and Caenolestidae.
The big lutrine opossum ("lutrine" means "otter-like" and "crass" meaning "thick, fat" and "cauda" meaning "tail") is a very peculiar opossum, having a long weasel-like body, short legs, small rounded ears, and dense reddish or yellowish fur. [3] Nocturnal and crepuscular, they generally live in grasslands and savannas near water. They are ...
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.
The species are commonly known as possums, opossums, [3] gliders, and cuscus. The common name "(o)possum" for various Phalangeriformes species derives from the creatures' resemblance to the opossums of the Americas (the term comes from Powhatan language aposoum "white animal", from Proto-Algonquian * wa·p-aʔɬemwa "white dog"). [ 4 ]