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Marsupials of North America — marsupial mammals of North America, within the Didelphimorphia order that is endemic to the Americas. Pages in category "Marsupials of North America" The following 9 pages are in this category, out of 9 total.
The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 126 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North America in the Great American Interchange following the connection of North and South America in the late Cenozoic. The Virginia opossum is the only species found in the United States and Canada.
No other mammal in North America has more than 6 upper incisors, but the Virginia opossum has 10. Perhaps surprisingly for such a widespread and successful species, the Virginia opossum has one of the lowest encephalization quotients of any marsupial. [19] Its brain is one-fifth the size of a raccoon's. [20]
The remaining 30% are distributed across the Americas, primarily in South America, with thirteen species in Central America and a single species, the Virginia opossum, inhabiting North America north of Mexico. Marsupial sizes range from a few grams in the long-tailed planigale, [1] to several tonnes in the extinct Diprotodon. [2]
This is a list of North American mammals. It includes all mammals currently found in the United States , St. Pierre and Miquelon , Canada , Greenland , Bermuda , Mexico , Central America , and the Caribbean region, whether resident or as migrants .
The largest species, the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), is the only marsupial to be found in North America, north of Mexico. The Virginia opossum has opposable toes on their two back feet. One of the synapomorphies of this genus is the hypertrophied spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae, which also interlock. As a result, this ...
Opossums probably diverged from the basic South American marsupials in the late Cretaceous or early Paleocene. They are small to medium-sized marsupials, about the size of a large house cat, with a long snout and prehensile tail. Family: Didelphidae (American opossums) Subfamily: Didelphinae. Virginia opossum, D. virginiana [n 1] [n 2] LC
The latter subclass is divided into two infraclasses: pouched mammals (metatherians or marsupials), and placental mammals (eutherians, for which see List of placental mammals). Classification updated from Wilson and Reeder's "Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference" using the "Planet Mammifères" website. [1]