Perhaps surprisingly for such a widespread and successful species, the Virginia opossum has one of the lowest encephalization quotients of any marsupial.

As a marsupial, the opossum has a reproductive system including a divided uterus and marsupium, which is the pouch.

Although the bipedal Tasmanian Devil's appearance does not resemble its marsupial inspiration, it contains multilayered references to other " devils ": he has horn-shaped fur on his head ( similar to the Devil's appearance ) and whirls about like a dust devil ( similar in appearance to a tornado ) which sounds like several motors whirring in unison.

While the Malesia has much in common botanically, the portions east and west of the Wallace Line differ greatly in land animal species ; Sundaland shares its fauna with mainland Asia, while terrestrial fauna on the islands east of the Wallace line are derived at least in part from species of Australian origin, such as marsupial mammals and ratite birds.

Although the numbat finds termite mounds primarily using scent, it has the highest visual acuity of any marsupial, and, unusually for marsupials, has a high proportion of cone cells in the retina.

The position of the Peramelemorphia within the marsupial family tree has long been puzzling and controversial.

In Australia, reflecting on the marsupial kangaroos and potoroos, he thought them so strange that an unbeliever " might exclaim ' Surely two distinct Creators must have been work ; their object however has been the same & certainly the end in each case is complete '", yet an antlion he was watching was very similar to its European counterpart.

Madagascar was separated by water when the marsupials first evolved in the northern hemisphere, and there are no current species of marsupial on the island, which has revived the idea that colonies of animals might have somehow crossed vast stretches of water.

This marsupial forages alone during the night and has a keen sense of smell.

This semiaquatic creature is found in and near the freshwater streams and lakes in Mexico, Central and South America to Argentina, and is the most aquatic living marsupial ( the lutrine opossum also has aquatic habits ).

Being a marsupial and at the same time an aquatic animal, the water opossum has evolved a way to protect its young while swimming.

After an afternoon on the planet, Science Officer T ' Pol requests that Crewmwen Cutler and Novakovich remain with her to study several nocturnal marsupial species the landing party has discovered.

The practice of restoring traditional names to marsupial species has conserved this common name.

One living South American marsupial, the monito del monte, has been shown to be more closely related to Australian marsupials than to other South American marsupials ; however, it is the most basal australidelphian, meaning that this superorder arose in South America and then colonized Australia after the monito del monte split off.

* The film is spoofed in a 1991 episode of The Simpsons where Space Mutants V has the Space Mutants having marsupial variants with pouches.

Diprotodon, meaning " two forward teeth ", sometimes known as the giant wombat or the rhinoceros wombat, is the largest known marsupial ever to have lived.

A kangaroo () is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae ( macropods, meaning ' large foot ').

The koala ( Phascolarctos cinereus ) is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae.

Using this criterion, the earliest known marsupial is Sinodelphys szalayi, which lived in China around 125 million years ago ( mya ).

Though early birth puts the tiny newborn marsupial at a greater environmental risk, it significantly reduces the dangers associated with long pregnancies, as there is no need to carry a large fetus to full-term in bad seasons.

An infant marsupial is known as a joey.

A marsupial joey is unable to regulate its own body temperature, and thus relies upon an external heat source.

The start of the Oligocene is marked by a notable extinction event ; the replacement of European fauna with Asian fauna, except for the endemic rodent and marsupial families called the Grande Coupure.

The Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae, now found in the wild only on the Australian island state of Tasmania.

The sugar glider ( Petaurus breviceps ) is a small, omnivorous, arboreal gliding possum belonging to the marsupial infraclass.

In the winter season or drought, there is a decrease in food supply, which is a challenge for this marsupial because of the energy cost for the maintenance of its metabolism, locomotion, and thermoregulation.

A possum ( plural form: possums ) is any of about 70 small to medium-sized arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi ( and introduced to New Zealand and China ).

The smallest possum, indeed the smallest diprotodont marsupial, is the Little Pygmy Possum with an adult head-body length of 70mm and a weight of 10g.

The Virginia opossum ( Didelphis virginiana ), commonly known as the North American opossum or tlacuache in Mexico, is the only marsupial found in North America north of Mexico.

The Spotted Quoll is mainland Australia's largest carnivorous marsupial and an endangered species.

The world's largest surviving carnivorous marsupial is the Tasmanian Devil ; it is the size of a small dog and can hunt, although it is mainly a scavenger.

A classic comparison is between the marsupial fauna of Australia and the placental mammals of the Old World.

For instance, the striking example of similar placental and marsupial forms is described by Richard Dawkins in The Blind Watchmaker as a case of convergent evolution, because mammals on each continent had a long evolutionary history prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs under which to accumulate relevant differences.

Tjilpa is the name given to a marsupial cat amongst the Northern Aranda language group of Australian Aboriginal people.

Diprotodontia (; diprotos, meaning " two front " and οδοντος odontos meaning " teeth ") is a large order of about 120 marsupial mammals including the kangaroos, wallabies, possums, koala, wombats, and many others.

There is a native marsupial known as the phalanger or the gray cuscus.

Mammals included multituberculates and the marsupial Didelphodon.

Early marsupial mammals evolved in the Early Cretaceous, with true placentals emerging in the Late Cretaceous period.

There were also other superficially cat-like mammals, such as the marsupial sabertooth Thylacosmilus or the Nimravidae, which are not included in Felidae despite superficial similarities.

South American niches for mammalian carnivores were dominated by these marsupial and sparassodont metatherians.

The branching sequence of marsupial orders indicated by the study puts Didelphimorphia in the most basal position, followed by Paucituberculata, then Microbiotheria, and ending with the radiation of Australian marsupials.

An early birth removes a developing marsupial from its parent's body much sooner than in placental mammals, and thus marsupials have not developed a complex placenta to protect the embryo from its mother's immune system.

To crawl to the nipple and attach to it, the marsupial must have well developed forelimbs and facial structures.

* First marsupial genome released.

Polyandry also occurs in some primates such as marmosets, mammal groups, the marsupial genus ' Antechinus and bandicoots, around 1 % of all bird species, such as jacanas, insects such as honeybees, and fish such as pipefish.

The size of a small dog, it became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world following the extinction of the thylacine in 1936.

The remainder of the Dasyuridae are referred to as ' marsupial mice '; most weigh less than 100 g. There are two species of Marsupial Mole — order Notoryctemorphia — that inhabit the deserts of Western Australia.