Water Opossum

Chironectes minimus (Zimmermann 1780)

Phil Myers, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor cc-by-nc-sa-3.0

Chironectes minimus (Water Opossum) is a species of mammals in the family Didelphidae. They are native to The Neotropics. They are solitary, nocturnal omnivores. Individuals are known to live for 36 months and can grow to 297.5 mm. Reproduction is viviparous. They have parental care (female provides care and paternal care). They rely on swimming to move around.

URI: https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q217151
Definition: one of the eight terrestrial ecozones constituting the Earth's land surface
Attribution: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ecozone_Neotropic.svg

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URI: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q164509
Definition: organism consuming a variety of foods, usually including both plants and animals

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URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/solitary
Definition: Solitary animals are those that spend a majority of their lives without others of their species, with possible exceptions for mating and raising their young. Antonyms for a solitary animal include a social animal or a colonial animal.
Attribution: https://www.definitions.net/definition/solitary+animal

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URI: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q309179
Definition: animal behavior characterized by activity during the night and sleeping during the day

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URI: http://www.marinespecies.org/traits/Viviparous
Definition: 1) Producing live offspring from within the body of the parent (Lincoln et al., 1998). 2) Development of an embryo within the body of the parent, in part, resources passing directly from parent to embryo (Barnes et al., 2006).
Attribution: Lincoln, R., Boxshall, G. & Clark, P., 1998. A dictionary of ecology, evolution and systematics (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University of Press. Barnes R.S.K., Calow P., Olive P.J.W., Golding, D.W, and Spicer, J.I. 2006. The invertebrates: a new synthesis, Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd. http://www.marinespecies.org/traits/wiki/Traits:Viviparous

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URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/parentalCareFemale
Definition: the female feeds and nurtures offspring
Attribution: Richard M. Sibly, Christopher C. Witt, Natalie A. Wright, Chris Venditti, Walter Jetz, and James H. Brown. 2012. Energetics, lifestyle, and reproduction in birds. PNAS 109(27):10937-10941, doi:10.1073/pnas.1206512109

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URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/paternalCare

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URI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GO_0036268
Definition: Self-propelled movement of an organism from one location to another through water, often by means of active fin movement.

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EOL has data for 64 attributes, including:

age at eye opening
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/AgeAtEyeOpening
- Definition: Age at which both eyes are fully open after birth.
- Comment: Add to VT postnatal growth trait ontology
- Attribution: Kate E. Jones, Jon Bielby, Marcel Cardillo, Susanne A. Fritz, Justin O''Dell, C. David L. Orme, Kamran Safi, Wes Sechrest, Elizabeth H. Boakes, Chris Carbone, Christina Connolly, Michael J. Cutts, Janine K. Foster, Richard Grenyer, Michael Habib, Christopher A. Plaster, Samantha A. Price, Elizabeth A. Rigby, Janna Rist, Amber Teacher, Olaf R. P. Bininda-Emonds, John L. Gittleman, Georgina M. Mace, and Andy Purvis. 2009. PanTHERIA, a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals. Ecology 90:2648. http://esapubs.org/archive/ecol/E090/184/
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41.5 days
body shape
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/BodyShape
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bilaterally symmetric
- URI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/PATO_0001324
- Definition: being symmetric about a plane running from frontal end to caudal end (head to tail), and having nearly identical right and left halves
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diet breadth
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/DietBreadth
- Definition: Number of dietary categories eaten by an organism.
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4
diet includes
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/Diet
- Definition: Information about the items eaten by this organism.
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crustaceans
- URI: https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q25364
- Definition: subphylum of arthropods
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ecomorphological guild
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/EcomorphologicalGuild
- Definition: organisms that share certain morphological traits due to adaptation to similar environments and ecological roles
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amphibious
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/amphibious
- Definition: organism that is adapted to both life on land and in the water.
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first appearance
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/FossilFirst
- Definition: The first appearance of this taxon in the fossil record.
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2.588 million years ago
geographic range (size of area)
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/GeographicRangeArea
- Definition: The total extent of the geographic range of an organism.
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3719496.58 km^2
habitat breadth
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/HabitatBreadth
- Definition: Number of habitat layers used by an organism
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3
inter-birth interval
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/InterBirthInterval
- Definition: The length of time between successive births of a female.
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365 days
litters per year
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/LittersPerYear
- Definition: Number of litters per female per year
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1.1
mating system
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/MatingSystem
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not monogamous
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/notMonogamous
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native range includes
- URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/NativeRange
- Definition: Lists jurisdictions in which a given organism is a member of the undisturbed fauna or flora.
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The Neotropics
- URI: https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q217151
- Definition: one of the eight terrestrial ecozones constituting the Earth's land surface
- Attribution: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ecozone_Neotropic.svg
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Known occurrences, collected specimens and observations of Water Opossum. View this species on GBIF

Phil Myers, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor cc-by-nc-sa-3.0

Water Opossum includes 4 children: