Metachirus nudicaudatus
The brown four-eyed opossum is a pouchless marsupial of the family Didelphidae. It is found in different forested habitats of Central and South America, from Nicaragua to Brazil and northern Argentina, including southeastern Colombia, Paraguay and eastern Peru and Bolivia, at elevations from sea level to 1,500 m (4,900 ft). It is the only recognized species in the genus Metachirus, but molecular phylogenetics studies suggest that it should probably be split into several species. Population densities are usually low, and it is uncommon in parts of Central America. A density of 25.6/km2 (66/sq mi) was reported near Manaus, Brazil. Its karyotype has 2n = 14 and FN = 24.
Haplochromis · 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
- brown four-eyed opossumPBDB
- Sits inside
- MetachirusPBDB
- Diet
- omnivore, carnivorePBDB, for Didelphidae
- Life habit
- scansorialPBDB, for Didelphidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Didelphidae
Time the record covers
At most 12 thousand years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.7 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
3 occurrences of Metachirus nudicaudatus on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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
3 occurrences- Holocene100%
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.
Metachirus nudicaudatus and its relatives
HoloceneWhere Metachirus nudicaudatus and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.
Found in the same rock
100 taxa- Cuniculus paca3 sites
- Cyclopes3 sites
- Dasypus (Dasypus) novemcinctus3 sites
- Didelphis marsupialis3 sites
- Eira barbara3 sites
- Mazama americana3 sites
- Nasua nasua3 sites
- Oryzomys3 sites
- Panthera onca3 sites
- Pecari tajacu3 sites
- Potos flavus3 sites
- Proechimys3 sites
- Puma concolor3 sites
- Sciurus3 sites
- Tayassu pecari3 sites
- Alouatta seniculus2 sites
- Aotus trivirgatus2 sites
- Ateles paniscus2 sites
- Bassaricyon gabbii2 sites
- Bradypus variegatus2 sites
- Caluromys lanatus2 sites
- Cervus gouazoubira2 sites
- Choloepus hoffmanni2 sites
- Coendou prehensilis2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Metachirus nudicaudatus, 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
3 references- Barro Colorado Island and Tropical Biology1
- Central Amazonian Forests and the Minimum Crtical Size of Ecosystems Project1
- An Overview of Research at Cocha Cashu Biological Station1
Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Metachirus nudicaudatus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Haplochromis
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Metachirus nudicaudatus · UMMZ:mammals:155687
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
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 itMetachirus through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Geoffroy 1803)