AnAge entry for Didelphis virginiana
Classification (HAGRID: 02494)
- Taxonomy
-
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
Order: Didelphimorphia
Family: Didelphidae
Genus: Didelphis
- Species
- Didelphis virginiana
- Common name
- Virginia opossum
Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits
- Maximum longevity
- 6.6 years (captivity)
- Source
- ref. 671
- Sample size
- Medium
- Data quality
- Acceptable
- Observations
In the wild, these animals do not live more than 2 or 3 years. One animal has been known to live 6.6 years in captivity [0671]. Animals living on predator-free islands, live longer, start reproducing at later ages, have smaller litter sizes, and appear to age slower than their mainland counterparts [0695].
Life history traits (averages)
- Female sexual maturity
- 184 days
- Male sexual maturity
- 243 days
- Gestation
- 12 days
- Weaning
- 102 days
- Litter size
- 15 (viviparous)
- Litters per year
- 2
- Inter-litter interval
- 122 days
- Weight at birth
- 0.147 g
- Weight at weaning
- 142.5 g
- Adult weight
- 3,000 g
- Postnatal growth rate
- 0.0129 days-1 (from Gompertz function)
- Maximum longevity residual
- 39%
Metabolism
- Typical body temperature
- 308ºK or 35.0ºC or 95.0ºF
- Basal metabolic rate
- 5.2990 W
- Body mass
- 2846.6 g
- Metabolic rate per body mass
- 0.001862 W/g
References
- [1143] Nussey et al. (2013), Senescence in natural populations of animals: widespread evidence and its implications for bio-gerontology (PubMed)
- [1136] Gomes et al. (2011), Comparative biology of mammalian telomeres: hypotheses on ancestral states and the roles of telomeres in longevity determination (PubMed)
- [0978] Jones et al. (2009), PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals
- [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)
- [0434] Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World
- [0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
- [0695] Austad (1993), Retarded senescence in an insular population of Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana)
- [0473] Austad (1988), The adaptable opossum
- [0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves
External Resources
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- ITIS 179921
- Animal Diversity Web
- ADW account (if available)
- Encyclopaedia of Life
- Search EOL
- NCBI Taxonomy
- Taxonomy ID 9267
- Entrez
- Search all databases
- Ageing Literature
- Search Google Scholar or Search PubMed
- Images
- Google Image search
- Internet
- Search Google