Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Didelphimorphia > Didelphidae > Metachirus > Metachirus nudicaudatus

Metachirus nudicaudatus (Brown Four-eyed Opossum)

Synonyms: Didelphis nudicaudata (homotypic); Metachirus nudicaudatus antioquiae
Language: Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The brown four-eyed opossum (Metachirus nudicaudatus) is a pouchless marsupial of the family Didelphidae. It is found in different forested habitats of Central and South America, from Nicaragua and to Paraguay and northern Argentina, at elevations from sea level to 1500 m. It is the only recognized species in the genus Metachirus, but molecular phylogenetics studies suggest that it should probably be split into several species. Population densities are usually low, and it is uncommon in parts of Central America. A density of 25.6/km2 was reported near Manaus, Brazil. Its karyotype has 2n = 14 and FN = 24.
View Wikipedia Record: Metachirus nudicaudatus

Infraspecies

Metachirus nudicaudatus colombianus
Metachirus nudicaudatus modestus
Metachirus nudicaudatus myosuros
Metachirus nudicaudatus nudicaudatus
Metachirus nudicaudatus tschudii

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
19
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
45
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 37.83
EDGE Score: 3.66
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  415 grams
Female Weight [1]  350 grams
Male Weight [1]  1.058 lbs (480 g)
Weight Dimorphism [1]  37.1 %
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Frugivore
Diet - Ectothermic [2]  20 %
Diet - Endothermic [2]  20 %
Diet - Fruit [2]  20 %
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  30 %
Diet - Vertibrates [2]  10 %
Forages - Scansorial [2]  100 %
Litter Size [3]  5
Litters / Year [1]  2
Maximum Longevity [3]  3 years
Nocturnal [4]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [1]  11 inches (27 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Atlantic Forest Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay No
Cerrado Brazil No
Mesoamerica Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama No
Tropical Andes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela No
Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru No

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 4Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 5International Flea Database
♦ 6Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0