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Project Noah Nature School
Didelphis virginiana
The Virginia opossum is the original animal named "opossum". The word comes from Algonquian 'wapathemwa' meaning "white animal", not from Greek or Latin, so the plural is opossums. Colloquially, the Virginia opossum is frequently called simply possum. The name is applied more generally to any of the other marsupials of the Didelphimorphia and Paucituberculata orders, which includes a number of opossum species in South America.
Open woodland.
Spotted on Mar 22, 2012
Submitted on Mar 22, 2012
10 Comments
Happy to Emily!
Hi Karen, would you please consider adding this to the "Identifying Animals Through Osteology" Mission: http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8475... Thanks! ;)
Nice find! In pretty good condition too!
lol
i am amazed at the simplicity of arrangement considering the fact that they are a total of 50. i remember reading somewhere that they get to replace their teeth. Cannot find the link.
BTW , i hope that people are not killing these for a mere 3 dollars.
Emma, I think this little guys teeth are beyond even Dr Atul's restorative skills!
Hi Emma! I think this was a long deceased possum! I found the skull in the undergrowth but no other bones, not even the jaw! One of the canine fell out when I moved it & I had to pop it back in for the photo! Maybe I need to order a bag of possum teeth for him! (how bizarre is that?)
I can see the 4 molars,3 pre molars and 1 canine very well.
Do you know where the inscisors are? i am assuming in the very front.
BTW,Karen thank you for your feedback.
Bag of opossum teeth- $3 each
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41598561@N0...
Opossums have 50 teeth:
1/2 of upper jaw: 5 incisors, 1 canine, 3 premolars, and 4 molars.
1/2 of bottom jaw: 4 incisors, 1 canine, 3 premolars, 4 molars.
Thanks Francis! I don't usually post bones but I though it was interesting to see the dentation.