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Virginia Opossum

Didelphis virginiana

Photo by MitchRay
Published on Project Noah
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29.703, -98.1245

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Comments (8)
p.young713
I didn't know that! Some of old timers used to tell us, when we were children they mated through the nose! They also would cook them in times of famine! Possum stew! And they had that old saying as you may have heard, when a person was playing possum! Lol ~But, I have not seen many as I think they are Nocturnal!
MitchRay
Not cold blooded, but I think they have a fairly low body temp. When early naturalists discovered the opossum they found that the genitals were forked in males, and thought they mated through the nose! Later they discovered that females actually have a bifurcated womb. The genus name, Didelphis, comes from the Greek for "double-womb"
HemaShah
I also remeber reading that they grow another set of teeth when the loose one, Need to check into that. They flash their teeth as a means of scaring predators away. Only cold blooded mammal ? Do not carry rabies. Highly recommended for backyard. Marsupial. Play dead as means of self defense. Do the same in oncoming traffic thinking cars are predators. therefore many orphaned babies are taken in from the pouch of moms .
AmyPietras
Cool! I do love their prehensil tails (they are pretty neat)
MitchRay
Mammalogy was many moons ago, but if I remember correctly: the Virginia Opossum has 50 teeth. The Numbat of Australia narrowly beats it by having 52.
AmyPietras
I do believe that the this mammal has more teeth of any other mammal?
Photographed
PublishedApril 11, 2011

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