Marmosa

The 29 species in the genus Marmosa are relatively small Neotropical members of the family Didelphidae. This genus is one of three that are known as mouse opossums. The others are Thylamys and Tlacuatzin, the grayish mouse opossum. Members of the genus Marmosops used to be called "slender mouse opossums", but are now just called "slender opossums". The thirteen members of the Marmosa subgenus Micoureus, known as woolly mouse opossums, were formerly considered to be a separate genus, but were moved into Marmosa in 2009. Based on a comparison of sequences of one mitochondrial and three nuclear genes, three new subgenera, Eomarmosa, Exulomarmosa and Stegomarmosa, were recognized by Voss et al. in 2014. Eomarmosa and Exulomarmosa, as well as Marmosa and Micoureus, are thought to be sister taxa, while Stegomarmosa is viewed as sister to Marmosa plus Micoureus. Exulomarmosa is a mostly trans-Andean clade.

Marmosa

Esteban Alzate · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
mouse opossumPBDB
Sits inside
MarmosiniPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Didelphidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Marmosinae

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 13.8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 22 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 22 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 8 of 22 occurrencesPleistocene14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–7.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.2–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–4.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.3–3.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.3–2.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.9–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–1.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.9–1.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.4–953 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences953 ka–477 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences477 ka–0 Mya — about 15 occurrences11 Mya11.7 ka14.3 Mya0 Mya

22 occurrences of Marmosa on record. 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

22 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

4 formations

Chapadmalal — 38.00°S, 58.00°WMonte Hermoso — 38.99°S, 61.67°WBotucatu — 29.56°S, 51.40°WSolimões — 8.30°S, 70.44°W

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The named rock units Marmosa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

337 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Marmosa, 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

17 references

Each of the 22 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. 5 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 Marmosa

Credit
Esteban Alzate
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itMarmosini through timeThe world it lived on

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