Didelphis virginiana

Such a huge skull and such a tiny brain case…

A few years ago I had the chance to buy an opossum skull online. Unfortunately I didn’t ask for photos, I just ordered it because I wanted it so hard. Well, as it turns out you should never do this. I’m not unhappy with my opossum skull, but it isn’t well-cleaned and there are some gluey parts. Besides that it’s quite a funny skull. See more pictures under the cut!

Opossums are omnivores, they eat everything. You can see that by lookin at its teeth. Though it also has some pretty nasty fangs - I don’t want to get bitten by an opossum.

These animals have the size of a domestic cat. I can’t imagine such a huge rat-like creature at all. But they can’t move very fast, so if an opossum gets threaten it pretends its death. In that situation, opossums give off a rotten smell. What an actor!

There’s a nice bone ridge on the top of the skull.
It has small eyes. Maybe these animals are like badgers – watching with their noses.

I don’t know much about opossums (only the Wikipedia stuff), because there aren’t any in our country. But it seems that they are pretty cute animals.