The Didelphinae are a subfamily of opossums consisting of 15 genera and 123 species.[2][3][4] Specimens have been collected throughout the Americas, but are predominant in South and Central America.[5]

Didelphinae[1][2]
Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) in Ohio.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Didelphimorphia
Family: Didelphidae
Subfamily: Didelphinae
Gray, 1821
Genera

Chacodelphys
Chironectes
Cryptonanus
Didelphis
Gracilinanus
Lestodelphys
Lutreolina
Marmosa
Marmosops
Metachirus
Monodelphis
Philander
Thylamys
Tlacuatzin

Some sources call this subfamily the "American opossums",[2][6] while others use that term for the whole family of opossums, Didelphidae.[1] The term may be redundant, though, since all opossums are native to the Americas, while their distant Australian taxonomic relatives, in the suborder Phalangeriformes are referred to as possums in Australia.

Classification edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b "ITIS - Report: Didelphinae".
  2. ^ a b c "Namebank Record Detail".
  3. ^ "ION: Index to Organism Names".
  4. ^ "Micro*scope - version 6.0 - March, 2006". Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
  5. ^ "Didelphinae | Taxonomy Browser | BOLDSYSTEMS".
  6. ^ http://www.eol.org/pages/2844138[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ Juan A. Martínez-Lanfranco , David Flores , J. Pablo Jayat , and Guillermo D'Elía, A new species of lutrine opossum, genus Lutreolina Thomas (Didelphidae), from the South American Yungas, Source: Journal of Mammalogy, 95(2):225-240. 2014.

Further reading edit

  • Les marsupiaux du Tertiaire d'Europe.
  • Phylogenetic studies on didelphid marsupials II. Nonmolecular data and new IRBP sequences: Separate and combined analyses of didelphine relationships with denser taxon sampling.
  • New didelphine marsupials from La Venta fauna (Miocene) of Colombia, South America.
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  • [2][permanent dead link]