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opossum
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common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis) An adult Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) carries several young on its back while walking outdoors. A Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) “playing possum.”
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Brown four-eyed opossum (Metachirus nudicaudatus) in the Bigal River Biological Reserve, Ecuador. Illustrated chart showing the footprints of eight animals-opossum, skunk, raccoon, red fox, woodchuck, cottontail rabbit, gray squirrel, and muskrat-each with labeled front and hind foot tracks next to a drawing of the animal.
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common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis)
opossum summary
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common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis)
common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis) Common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis). The common opossum is native to tropical North and South America, its geographic range extending from central Mexico to Bolivia and Brazil.

opossum

marsupial group
Written by
Alfred L. Gardner
Curator, New World Mammals, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Wildlife Biologist, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, United States Geological Survey, Laurel,...
Alfred L. Gardner
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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opossum, any of slightly more than 100 species of New World marsupial mammals in the orders Didelphimorphia, Paucituberculata (see rat opossum), and Microbiotheria (see monito del monte). These marsupials, along with their relatives in Australasia, were formerly grouped together in the order Marsupialia (now a cohort including several orders). The word opossum is based on the Algonquian word apasum, meaning “white animal”—in reference to the Virginia opossum of North America. Some Australasian marsupials also are...

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