Didelphinae

The Didelphinae are a subfamily of opossums consisting of 15 genera and 123 species. Specimens have been collected throughout the Americas, but are predominant in South and Central America.

Didelphinae

Wilson44691 · Public Domain · 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
Sits inside
DidelphidaePBDB
Diet
omnivore, carnivorePBDB, for Didelphidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Didelphidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Didelphidae

Time the record covers

At least 39 million years on record.

The record covers at least 39.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 45.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 2 of 148 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 148 occurrencesMiocene — about 16 of 148 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 56 of 148 occurrencesPleistocene — about 51 of 148 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–9.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.4–7.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.8–6.2 Mya — about 7 occurrences6.2–4.7 Mya — about 12 occurrences4.7–3.1 Mya — about 42 occurrences3.1–1.6 Mya — about 12 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 69 occurrences39.7 Mya11.7 ka46.8 Mya0 Mya

148 occurrences of Didelphinae on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

148 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

34 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°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WMonte Hermoso — 38.00°S, 61.00°WIrene — 38.63°S, 60.61°WIrene — 38.53°S, 60.60°WCerro Azul — 36.08°S, 65.00°WCerro Azul — 37.73°S, 63.53°WCerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WCerro Azul — 37.22°S, 63.59°WItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WItuzaingo — 31.63°S, 60.33°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°WSopas — 30.98°S, 57.52°WSopas — 31.50°S, 57.53°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WSolimoes — 10.93°S, 69.92°WAndalhuala — 26.68°S, 66.03°WAndalhuala — 26.82°S, 66.06°WPuerto Belgrano — 38.98°S, 61.82°WPampean — 38.20°S, 59.12°WCorral Quemado — 26.97°S, 66.84°WCorral Quemado — 27.23°S, 66.93°WEntre Rios — 33.72°S, 59.25°WWellborn — 30.70°N, 94.70°WChadron — 42.00°N, 104.20°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WChapala — 20.30°N, 103.20°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WTarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WVorohué — 38.03°S, 57.72°WEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WVillavieja — 3.23°N, 75.18°WBarranca de los Lobos — 38.12°S, 57.70°WMesa — 9.85°N, 63.33°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Didelphinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 61 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Didelphinae and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Didelphinae and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

1,741 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 105 sites for Didelphinae, 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

70 references

Each of the 148 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. 58 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 content1

Picture of Didelphinae

Credit
Wilson44691
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itDidelphidae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1827