AnAge entry for Didelphis marsupialis
Classification (HAGRID: 02493)
- Taxonomy
-
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
Order: Didelphimorphia
Family: Didelphidae
Genus: Didelphis
- Species
- Didelphis marsupialis
- Common name
- Southern opossum
Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits
- Maximum longevity
- 4.2 years (captivity)
- Source
- ref. 671
- Sample size
- Small
- Data quality
- Acceptable
- Observations
Although there are anecdotal reports suggesting a longer lifespan in captivity, the longest-lived specimen was a 4.2 year old at Rotterdam Zoo [0671].
Life history traits (averages)
- Female sexual maturity
- 178 days
- Male sexual maturity
- 240 days
- Gestation
- 12 days
- Weaning
- 94 days
- Litter size
- 6 (viviparous)
- Litters per year
- 2
- Inter-litter interval
- 200 days
- Weight at birth
- 0.2 g
- Weight at weaning
- 96 g
- Adult weight
- 1,530 g
- Postnatal growth rate
- Maximum longevity residual
- 28%
Metabolism
- Typical body temperature
- 308ºK or 35.0ºC or 95.0ºF
- Basal metabolic rate
- 3.3100 W
- Body mass
- 1244.3 g
- Metabolic rate per body mass
- 0.002660 W/g
References
- [0671] Richard Weigl (2005), Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World
- [0036] Savage et al. (2004), The predominance of quarter-power scaling in biology
- [0420] White and Seymour (2003), Mammalian basal metabolic rate is proportional to body mass2/3 (PubMed)
- [0522] Fisher et al. (2001), The ecological basis of life history variation in marsupials
- [0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
External Resources
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- ITIS 552536
- Animal Diversity Web
- ADW account (if available)
- Encyclopaedia of Life
- Search EOL
- NCBI Taxonomy
- Taxonomy ID 9268
- Entrez
- Search all databases
- Ageing Literature
- Search Google Scholar or Search PubMed
- Images
- Google Image search
- Internet
- Search Google