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(Image credit: Leonid Korchenko/Getty Images)
FAST FACTS
Call: Virginia opossum(Didelphis virginiana
Where it lives: Central and The United States and Canada
What it consumes: Fruit, bugs, little animals and carrion
With their beady eyes, huge ears, hairless tails and brief, stocky legs, opossums are distinct marsupials. In spite of their odd look, these animals have an abundant evolutionary history and have actually stayed mostly the same for countless years. Their impressive capability to adjust to various environments, food sources and predators has actually assisted them make it through from the time of the dinosaurs to today.
The Virginia opossum is the only opossum types discovered in the United States and Canada. Opossums have the tiniest brain-to-weight ratio of any North American mammal.
The earliest recognized family members of contemporary opossums lived over 65 million years earlier, around the time dinosaurs went extinct. A 2009 research study released in PLOS ONE discovered that peradectids, a household of marsupials understood from fossils mainly in North America and Eurasia, are the closest extinct family members of living opossums. Like contemporary opossums, peradectids had opposable thumbs on their hind feet and a likewise shaped skull– functions that have actually stayed almost the same for countless years. The earliest opossum fossils go back to the early Miocene date, approximately 20 million years earlier.
One essential reason opossums have actually endured for so long with couple of modifications is since they are versatile. These marsupials consume practically anything, consisting of fruit, bugs, little animals and animal carcasses. They can live anywhere from forests to metropolitan yards. And, although they are primarily nighttime, they can often be seen in daytime if food is limited.
Opossums are likewise resistant to snake venomespecially that of rattlesnakes and other pit vipers. This resistance is because of a protein called Lethal Toxin Neutralising Factor discovered in their blood, which can reduce the effects of different toxic substances in snake venom. This makes it possible for opossums to victimize poisonous snakes that would otherwise be a risk.
Opossum mothers bring their infants around on their backs till they have to do with 12 weeks old. (Image credit: Specialjake, CC BY-SA 3.0, by means of Wikimedia Commons)
Opossums bring to life underdeveloped young, which crawl into a pouch and nurse for around 8 weeks as they grow. Young opossums then ride on their mom’s back for numerous weeks till they end up being independent at 12 weeks old.
When threatened, opossums might grumble, hiss, bare their teeth or climb up a neighboring tree to get away. If escape isn’t possible, they turn to “playing dead” — a defense reaction referred to as thanatosis
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This response isn’t a mindful choice however a physiological action to severe tension. It triggers the opossum to end up being entirely stable and appear lifeless. This habits is frequently accompanied by a considerable drop in heart and breathing ratesa decline in body temperature level and the release of a foul-smelling fluid from the anal glands. Together, these hints signal to predators that the opossum is currently dead, frequently triggering them to lose interest and carry on. Involuntarily “playing possum” allows the animals to make it through the encounter.
Lydia Smith is a health and science reporter who works for U.K. and U.S. publications. She is studying for an MSc in psychology at the University of Glasgow and has an MA in English literature from King’s College London.
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