1. Marsupialia Class: Mammalia Two sub-classes
Egg-laying mammals, monotremes, and mammals who give live birth, therians
Therians are further divided into two infraclasses
Eutherians, placental mammals and the
Marsupials, animals with pouches (marsupium)

2. Marsupials, history First arose during the Paleocene
65 million years ago
A geologic epoch that defines the end of the last mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous (the end of the age of dinosaurs)

3. Marsupials, distribution
Two divisions of the 334 species of marsupials
American marsupials
113 species in South and Central America
One species in North America
Australian marsupials
More than 200 species

4. Marsupial distribution

5. Australian Marsupials

6. American Marsupials Central American Wooly Opossum
South American Bushy-Tailed

7. Opossums More than 60 species of opossum
Opossum is an American Algonquian word meaning “white dog”
North American Virginia opossum

8. Opossums The only North American species is the Virginia opossum
Commonly called 'possums' in the American southeast, the possum is technically a species of smaller opossum indigenous to Australia

9. Opossums Young are as small as honeybees when they are born
Gestation is only about 2 weeks
Young crawl into the pouch and nurse for days before emerging from the pouch

10. Opossum immunity Particularly robust
Resistant to among other things, snake venom and ricin
Rabies is very rare in opossums, less than 1 in 800 animals affected

11. Diet
Opportunistic eaters with a varied diet

12. Playing possum An involuntary reaction, similar to fainting
In response to stress
The teeth are bared, the eyes half-closed and gives all appearance of a dead animal
Usually awake after 40 minutes but can last up to 4 hours