Didelphidae

Opossums are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia endemic to the Americas. 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.

Didelphidae

Specialjake · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
opossumPBDB
Sits inside
DidelphimorphiaPBDB
Diet
omnivore, carnivorePBDB
Life habit
scansorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 2 of 362 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 5 of 362 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 40 of 362 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 12 of 362 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 78 of 362 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 80 of 362 occurrencesPleistocene — about 93 of 362 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences71–68 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 2 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences60–57 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 3 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 4 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 7 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 6 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 4 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 4 occurrences40–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 9 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 6 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 4 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–23 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–11 Mya — about 21 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 7 occurrences8.5–5.7 Mya — about 38 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 83 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 148 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

362 occurrences of Didelphidae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

362 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

76 formations

Chapadmalal — 38.00°S, 58.00°WChapadmalal — 38.12°S, 57.70°WChapadmalal — 38.15°S, 57.61°WChapadmalal — 38.15°S, 57.62°WCerro Azul — 37.73°S, 63.53°WCerro Azul — 36.70°S, 64.28°WCerro Azul — 36.08°S, 65.00°WCerro Azul — 37.02°S, 64.51°WCerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WCerro Azul — 37.28°S, 64.15°WCerro Azul — 35.92°S, 64.87°WCerro Azul — 37.22°S, 63.59°WMonte Hermoso — 38.99°S, 61.67°WMonte Hermoso — 38.98°S, 61.82°WMonte Hermoso — 38.00°S, 61.00°WVillavieja — 3.26°N, 75.18°WVillavieja — 3.23°N, 75.18°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WIrene — 38.63°S, 60.61°WIrene — 38.53°S, 60.60°WBridger — 41.70°N, 109.00°WBridger — 41.80°N, 110.70°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WMuñani — 15.73°S, 70.17°WEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WBotucatu — 29.56°S, 51.40°WItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WItuzaingo — 31.63°S, 60.33°WSolimões — 8.30°S, 70.44°WLa Victoria — 3.30°N, 75.13°WLa Victoria — 3.31°N, 75.16°WAndalhuala — 26.68°S, 66.03°WAndalhuala — 26.82°S, 66.06°WLa Huertita — 34.91°S, 68.50°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°WSopas — 30.98°S, 57.52°WSopas — 31.50°S, 57.53°WFriars — 32.94°N, 117.08°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 42.00°N, 104.20°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WSolimoes — 10.93°S, 69.92°WVorohué — 38.03°S, 57.72°WVorohué — 38.12°S, 57.70°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.71°WBarranca de los Lobos — 38.12°S, 57.70°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Didelphidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 52 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 140 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Didelphidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Didelphidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,809 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 214 sites for Didelphidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

133 references

Each of the 362 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 121 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Didelphidae

Credit
Specialjake
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Didelphidae indet. · University of Colorado Museum of Natural History (UCM):Vertebrate:103091

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDidelphimorphia through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1821)