Didelphis

Didelphis is a genus of New World marsupials. The six species in the genus Didelphis, commonly known as Large American opossums, are members of the opossum order, Didelphimorphia.

Didelphis

Uncredited · 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
large American opossumPBDB
Sits inside
DidelphinaePBDB
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 7.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 67 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 9 of 67 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 43 of 67 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 12 of 67 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 47 occurrences7.246 Mya11.7 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

67 occurrences of Didelphis 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

67 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

15 formations

Chapadmalal — 38.00°S, 58.00°WChapadmalal — 38.12°S, 57.70°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°WSopas — 30.98°S, 57.52°WSopas — 31.50°S, 57.53°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WChapala — 20.30°N, 103.20°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WVorohué — 38.03°S, 57.72°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WIrene — 38.63°S, 60.61°WMesa — 9.85°N, 63.33°WPamlico — 32.85°N, 80.05°WWando — 33.08°N, 79.94°WSan Gregorio — 11.30°N, 70.24°WBeaumont — 29.66°N, 94.09°WSolimões — 8.30°S, 70.44°W

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The named rock units Didelphis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 44 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Didelphis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Didelphis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,202 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 63 sites for Didelphis, 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

45 references

Each of the 67 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. 33 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 Didelphis

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itDidelphinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758