h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks for sharing this with us. Just curious, but are aboral possums a different species than our North American ones?

Hello Elektra! Thanks a lot. Australian possums are quite different from opossums. They're in different families: your possums are in the Didelphidae, and Australian possums are in the Phalangeridae. They even belong to different branches of the marsupial family tree. Your possums occur only in the Americas, but there's one that belongs to the Australian branch that also occurs in South America! Then there's another family, the shrew oppossums, that only occur in South America.

So, the Tasmanian devil has nipples in the pouch as well as out of it?

Thanks, Willem. we seen opossums here in shrubbery but never in trees!

Hi Paulh, no as I understand it, the nipples are all inside the pouch.

The young are 'out of the pouch' in the sense that they don't stay there anymore but they can pop their heads into the pouch to drink milk.

It seems like an unusual arrangement to us mammals, but maybe we seem odd to egg-laying creatures? if they think about it at all?

I've not seen any information of late ? re: Tas'
I know a while back "they" we're dying off due to some disease etc ?

I hope that "we" can change that and bring them back from near extinction as such...

Would we be able to find a cure for a parasite that causes facial cancer in them?

http://greentumble.com/why-are-tasmanian-devils-endangered/

That's what it would take.

Thanks Paul..

We humans can be blamed for many things, but this is not one of them, that i know of.

Indeed, many people are doing their damnedest to help the devils.