How Did North America End Up With a Marsupial? 

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My wife once had a 2 or 3 minute argument with an Opossum after she mistook it for our cat. It was delightful to watch.

We had a possum who loved to come to our house since we left out food for the cats. She was such a frequenter, we named her Patsy Possum. My mom was worried since we lived on a busy street, so she got a humane cage trap, caught it, and called up animal control to take Patsy way up into the hills. We kids were sad but accepted that this was safest. A few weeks later, Patsy was back, now with babies, munching away on our cat food. Sadly, Patsy did end up getting hit by a car, so my mom took in the babies. We raised those possum babies, kept them in knitted pouches, she searched the library to figure out what to feed them (no internet back then) and gradually we let them explore the big outdoors. Although they were very habituated to humans, they did pretty well, drifted off, probably to scour new trash bins. On the plus side, they cleaned up messes so there were no rats in our neighborhood and there wasn't a tick in sight.

Love opossoms. My dog went after one, all it did was open its mouth and start walking towards my dog while hissing. I like to think they did this to dinosaurs too.

Fun fact: Opposum's have a lower body temperature which means it's almost impossible for them to get rabies. Unlike skunks, racoons, and other mammals.

Whenever I hear somebody rant in terror about a "Giant Monster Rat!" in their garden … I tell them they've probably sighted North America's only marsupial - that sounds exotic, and it tends to make them listen just long enough to learn why they should probably be nice to it. As for the other giant North American Monster - Big Foot - well, he can take care of himself 😉

North American opossums also eat a LOT of ticks every night! So there's one good reason to help them along!

Where I’m from, El Salvador🇸🇻 we call them “Takwatzin” which essentially translates to as “the eater”, because of all the pests, and diseases opossums keep away. Opossums we’re also believed to have given us the gift of fire which is why the fur on their tails are “burnt off” lol:)

Fun fact: the scientific term for a masupial's pouch is a marsupium, which is why we call pouched mammals marsupials.

I live in Ohio, USA and just love these little guys! They're so interesting and unique. People can call them pests all they want, opossums are great to have around and have been proven to be beneficial to the ecosystem. It's a shame when I see them dead on the road.

I have a family of Opossums living near my house, I leave food out for them sometimes. I live close to the woods so I see them a lot on my house cameras. The babies are adorable.

I wasn’t prepared for the “so well known… by so many trash bins” joke and the delivery just HIT me and I am laughing so hard rn

There is a small colony on Oahu, HI, they escaped from traveling zoo. They are not bother anything so they are left alone. Jerrold

Opossums are great because they pose practically no danger to humans. They play dead when they feel threatened rather than attacking. Even still they are extremely unlikely to carry rabies. They also furiously clean themselves of ticks, helping to stop their spread. They also eat mice and rats, which do carry diseases and are an actual pest.

In Mexico they call them “Tlacuache”. When I was a kid a family lived in my grandparents farm. Me and my sister used to leave cat food for them when we visited the farm. Good times. Lovely video, thanks!

Absolutely the coolest animals. Their lives are horribly short (about 2 years in the wild), and since they are so important to the ecosystem it would behoove us all to treat them kindly.

My cats have joined forces with a possum. I have to feed all of them if I want to go out after dark. Cute little friends, but also organized criminals.

I've seen both the Opossum and the Possum. They look nothing alike and I have to say our Possum is so much cuter. When people meet a possum they just melt and go "Awww! What a cutie!" They really are adorable.

I live in NJ (USA) and never really thought about how odd Opossums were, until today...........they were always just New York rats with fanny packs to me 🤷🏽

Also the opossum’s body temperature makes them immune to rabies and they’re great at eating pests. Those oversized rats are out good friends.

I have opposums in my yard all the time. They are so cute. Especially the babies. I was just thinking about the fact they are marsupials.

Can we get Michael in every video? The face. The voice. The smile. I'ma just melt into a puddle over here.

We have a 'Poss named Bernie who politely comes and cleans up under our bird feeders every night.

Thank you for posting this. Recently, after seeing an opossum in a trash bin at work, I wondered why it was the only marsupial in North America.

I had a pet Opossum. Crusty old man. Three years. He lost his sight and we took him in. He became a valuable member of the family, sleeping in our bed with our cat and boa and us.

I have a funny Schrödinger's Opossum story to share. So my Husband and I were engaged when he purchased his first home that he fixed up (it was a foreclosure) and it was a pretty rural area. His backyard neighbors stopped by early before he went to work to let him know that they shot & killed an Opossum that was on their shared fence and it fell into his yard so he might want to get rid of it. I usually car pool with him and we decided that we would deal with it when we got back. We decided to pick up some groceries on the way home for him, so I offered to put them away so he could go find the dead body and decide what to do with it (garbage or bury). I want to note that the backyard hasn't been leveled yet, as it was used by the previous owner as a big vegetable garden/grass yard and they stored extra soil and compost at the very back that grew over with grass. So there is a large mount of grassy dirt that prevents you from seeing the bottom of the fence unless you get up close to the fence itself. So if you are standing at the bottom with where the fence is, your eyeline is even with the top of the fence. My husband was impressed with how big the Opossum was and called me over to come check it out. As I was walking out to him I see him staring/face-to-face with a opossum that is actually ON the fence and up against some bushes and is less than a foot away from his face. As I walk closer I get suspicious that the animal isn't dead at all as the eyes look alive, it's nose & feet are pink, and it looked like the ears were fluttering. The closer I get, the more sure I am that this animal is actually alive and when I get to about 5 feet from him I get into an argument with him that his neighbors were clearly wrong and that the opossum is clearly STILL ALIVE and how can he be so close to it and think it was dead? I start begging him to slowly walk backwards towards me for his own safety, as they can be vicious & bite. He argues that the animal is clearly dead and that if I come closer I would clearly see it was dead. I tell him the ears appear to be twitching & the eyes are looking at me and he scoffs that I am being ridiculous. After 5 minutes of arguing he gets frustrated and motions with his arms towards the bottom of the fence (which I can't see from where I am standing) that the damn animal is clearly dead and that he isn't in any danger. That entire argument I thought he was looking at the animal that was basically eye-level and right in front of his face so I immediately became confused and walked a bit closer to see that he was right. There was a dead opossum laying there at his feet and that he hadn't notice the ALIVE opossum that was literally in biting distance to his face because he was so focused on the dead one! My husband startles pretty easily and I immediately became worried that if he noticed the very much, alive one right in front of him, that he might scare it into attacking him (it was very still and it looked like it was trying to hide its presence). I told him that he was right, but I would feel much more comfortable if he slowly walked back towards me. He was super dismissive and questioned why I was afraid of a dead animal, to which I just begged him to come to me. He sighed and walked towards me and once he was next to me I pointed out the ALIVE opossum that I thought he was talking about and was literally face-to-face with him. Cue surprised Pikachu face, and then he started to laugh hysterically. He says between guffaws that he thought I was going mental saying that the dead animal was alive when it was clearly dead and that it all makes sense why I was acting so nervous and demanding that he look at the animal more clearly to see that it was still alive. Considering the season, we figured that the alive opossum was the mate of the dead one and came to investigate where its mate was but was startled into stillness when my Husband walked up to the dead one and didn't notice the live one on the fence itself. We decided to leave the two animals alone and would come back later when hopefully the alive one will have moved on so he could dispose of the dead one at the bottom of the fence. My Husband learned a valuable lesson to simply follow my orders if they are reasonable that he back away from something that I view as dangerous, as I literally could be saving him, and for him to not assume I am going mental with silly claims.

We found an opossum in our bathroom and my family wanted to kill it but I talked them into releasing it somewhere safe. It was too cute. all life is precious

was, no joke, 30 minutes ago, talking about this with my co-worker, spitballin ideas as to how there's one marsupial here, and a bunch in Australia. is SciShow listening in my phone? probably.

i remember growing up in NC I used to watch mama opossums carrying her babies around in our backyard. One hot year in particular i saw a mama cowering under a car in the heat and she was just looking horrible. I went inside and got her a large bowl of water and she walked over and had a big long drink before heading back into the woods. I loved those little guys.

Meanwhile in Asia, the marsupials are also making there homecoming journey. Two species of cuscus are found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, rubbing shoulders with primates and ungulates from the north.

Possums and Opossums are awesome!

Opossums are wonderful!! They eat tons of ticks! Please don’t hurt them. They need to live their fuzzy lives

South : i heard your marsupial went extinct. North : yes South : lets band together so i can transport some my marsupials to you

the opossum is possibly the only Australian-eseque animal that is more dangerous outside of of OZ. Our possums are only feral cat dangerous and strange dog aggressive that makes them downright tame considering the rest of the furred clawed things. Kangaroo means furry clawed vicious, wombat means furry clawed vicious, quoll means furry clawed vicious, koala means furry clawed vicious. Tehy incorrectly say that the Innuit had 50 words for snow but Indigenous Australians had 200 words for "furry clawed vicious" BTW platypus means furry clawed vicious and venomed.

Opossums deserve more love.

Opossums are awesome! I love those weirdly cute little guys

Aww. Little baby looks like a Christmas tree ornament to me. 😁 he’s so cute and little. ❤️

My dog once tried to play with a very confused baby possum. She thought it was one of the ferrets and couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t play tag. Of course she also once stopped during a walk, stuck her nose in the dirt and pulled out a very disoriented mole. It too was unharmed and my daughter had to put it back in it’s tunnel. She said it was amazingly soft. Hettie never does more than dampen then slightly with kisses.

Also they eat lots of ticks!

I still maintain we got the possum intended for Australia. Australia, the content where 90% of everything wants to kill you got the adorable, cuddly looking critter, whereas we got the hissing, freaky-looking hell beast who would fight God for half a bagel.

Awe I love opossums! They're so cute! It's nice to hear the story of how they and their ancestors got to where they are now. 👍

You mean how did north america end up with the BEST marcupial?

Showing LOVE for the channel thank you for another great video once again. Have a Blessed day everyone

I was wondering this recently!

I think it really depends on how you define "North America". If we count central American countries from Mexico all the way down to the Panama Canal, then the roster will be quite a bit longer. We will even have water oppossum.

I think I was 12 when I found out opossums weren't born dead on the side of the road.

The Australian possum (I have several living in my chimney) was called after the American opossum. It is not a local name.

I was fixing to ask about the O being pronounced in the opossum. Thank you for clearing that up for me. Breaking Bad, when Jessie asked Walt when did the possum become an opossum. Lol.

We throw food scraps outside for the opossums to eat. Sometimes I go for a walk after dinner, and when I get back an opossum will be there gobbling it up and I have to wait patiently for him to finish his meal before I can go back inside. My cat will also sit nearby to make sure they don't get up to any mischief.

I would love to see the Southern Opossum! It is so cute! I am confident we have the Virginia ones here in Texas as I have seen them. I am close to Mexico though but can't recall ever seeing the southern kind. Supposedly we could have wild parrots from Mexico as well but have not seen one of those either. Maybe I need to move a bit closer. :) - Heidi

Our porch possom had it's own bowl just like the two cats, and racoon did on the deck. All four could be seen any summer night around dusk enjoying their meow mix or sitting relaxed together afterward. I would walk between them all to my car and back none of them would stir.

Better title: How Did North America End Up with the Best Marsupial?

Opossums also are really good at pest control, as they love to munch on ticks. They are also important scavengers and help to recycle dead animals back into reusable environmental nutrients. Great animals and worth cultivating their friendship.

Weird that I was wondering this recently. Like yesterday. Off a reddit post showing me the virgina possum.

Fun fact: Possums are the ugliest animal that still loves you and expects great things from you.

I leave cat food outside for stray cats, the possums love it too, so I let them feast

I dpn't know why you guys upload at 5pm, but I really appreciate it because I'm nocturnal and this is the only channel I can comment on while the videos are still new 🤣

I feel like you could a video on species (or familes/orders/etc) that went extinct in one place but came back like marsupials in North America or how Horses originated there, went extinct, survived in Asia and were then reintroduced to North America by Europeans.

Not just A marsupial, the BEST marsupial.

0:21 - That little face! ❤️ 0:25 - I never knew this! Amazing! 2:09 - I didn't know about these! I like the coloring!

I was sitting at a park bench one night and I heard the tiniest little squeak nearby, I saw movement so I turned on my flashlight and peered around the table expecting a mouse or worst case scenario a skunk, but instead sitting there staring at me is a baby possum, probably just now on its own. Just after spotting it, the small critter squeaked again and scurried off into the ravine looking back for a split second. Honestly cute little animals

Living in Florida for several years, saw a lot of opossums. They have a reputation for playing dead, but it's not true. They stand their ground and hiss at you very creepily. It makes you think they have rabies or something when they do that. So, I guess it works.

I LOVE opossums so much!! They are so heckin cute!! 😍

Ahhh so happy I stayed up late and caught this video :O I love Opossums so much :O they're adorable

I LOVE seeing pics of mama possums with tonnes of babies clinging to her as she tries to amble along. It’s unsettling yet adorable at the same time.

Loving the ponytail look!

Largest opossum I've seen was bigger than most stray dogs in my city. Had my headlights not shown on it rummaging through the garbage bags on the sidewalk I would have thought just that.

Aw damn! That little furface is so cute. I think the cutest things we have in our UK trees are squirrels, they're pretty damn cute, but the opossum wins

Good to see you looking healthy man! Nice video

If raccoons are trash pandas the opossum should be called the Trash Bandicoot

An opossum has been visiting my persimmon tree lately and munching on the fruits in pretty loud manner.

Thanks for the info. But where in Canada were they found as fossils? You were very specific what areas in the USA they were found, but just generalized Canada. Canada is huge man - larger than the USA, so give us more info plz.

I saw my first opossum the other day. It was minding it's business walking around the neighborhood bar. Good times.

Great video! Small correction tho, Sinodelphys Szalayi has been questioned as the first metatherian (Bi et al. 2018) making the most ancient record for the group from North American triassic .

There been a few generations of the same opossum family I feed scraps out the back door. They are very gentle and skittish.

I absolutely love our opossums here in Virginia ...they are our only marsupial so i think they are super special and amazing animals

We have opposums come to our deck each night, as we feed a feral cat. A couple nights ago, my Boston Terrier/Pug mix who thinks he's a tough guy, darted out and cornered the poor little guy. Naturally, he immediately played dead while I pulled off my dog and put him back in the house. I went out and petted the opposum for a minute and put out some oatmeal cookies for him. He woke up in 2-3 minutes, picked up a cookie and waddled off the deck.

I'm glad you made this video I never thought of possums as a bad animal or pest but reading the comments is crazy the amount of people that where misinformed about them

One of the best critters we have in the states! Don't fear them!

Somehow, this is the Horse story all over again: originated from North America, developing from Eohippus to Mesohippus and Miohippus to Megahippus, while side branches like Parahippus and Hippotherium left again and again, died out in their new habitats, until finally the Equini managed to escape extinction both in their new Eurasian habitats and the extinction of all horselike animals in North America at the end of the Ice Age, only to return as Equus caballus 500 years ago with the Spaniards.

I love opossums, my best friend has a wildlife rehab and i get to hang out and help with them! They have a few "keeper" opossums (ones that cant be released due to injury or having been bottle raised as a pet) The only threat they really pose is being a carrier of a bacteria that causes EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis) which is a neurological disease in horses (Very scary, horses loose coordination and will collapse) but luckily its easy to spot and treatable (A little $$ but with horses what isn't) if you know what you're looking for! So to any horse owners out there who dont know the signs of EPM and live in the US (Even if you think there are no opossums near you) PLEASE look into the signs!

pls upload more video about animals.I love scishow.I always watch

Informative and entertaining

I just found and hung out with a baby opossum here in Oregon while hiking the other night with a flashlight and my dogs. I made sure my dogs didn't bother the little guy.

Earlier this year, Brilliant took the interactivity of their daily challenges, and chucked in the bin.

I was dumpster diving once and saw movement in a bag. To my surprise, an oppossum stuck it's little nose out. It was cute and terrifying all at the same time.

Had a pet possum (and a fully equipped skunk) when in junior high and Highschool. Both, like our cat, loved empty later grocery bags (anyone else remember those??) boxes, and picknic baskets. A few times a week the nearby marina/boat launch/general store/picknic area would call and ask us to come get Sally the Skunk. She was trying to get in folk's bags, boxes, and picknic baskets. 😊 She never did spray or bite anyone or their dog.

Missed you Michael Aranda!

Opossums are heccin adorable

I love love LOVE opossums and my fiancee does as well. We just wish they lived longer than 2 years 😢

Fascinating! I always thought opossums were cool - creepy, but cool

right on! opposums are good to have around.

I see one regularly moving along the side of the road, doing its opossum thing. Positive vibes from New Hampshire, remember to be kind to each other and yourself during this pandemic and social crisis

As a proud Australian, I choose to reflect your science and continue believing that marsupials evolved here. I appreciate your efforts, but no thank you

I was not prepared for ponytailed Micheal Aranda

This was a lot of fun

I’m from Texas and my Labrador literally was just trying to catch an opossum 😂

Very interesting. Back in the day, I spent 6 months bicycle touring around Australia enjoying all the unique flora and fauna, and of course, the fine hospitality of the people.

Until I started studying for my degree I had no idea that marsupials were NOT exclusive to Australia?! That's what I've always thought and it was hard to get my mum to believe me lol

Nobody: Opossums: Let's eat some trash and then get hit by a car