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Morphology, Form, and Function in Didelphid Marsupials

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American and Australasian Marsupials

Abstract

Didelphids are considered morphologically conservative and unspecialized; however, information about different morphological systems is not equally available among its members. Recent research is unveiling variation in their morphology that can be related to function, in the skeleton or soft tissues. Yet, differences in didelphid tribosphenic molars correlate poorly with their diet (possibly due to highly overlapping diets across taxa), and variation in cranial and mandibular shape can be partially related to function, although allometry and phylogeny play major roles in constraining that variation. Morphological variation in postcranial elements relates mostly to sexual dimorphism and locomotor habits, particularly in larger opossums, and osteological characters have been used for inferences about the locomotion habit of extinct taxa. Didelphid myology is generally similar within the group, but with some variation associated with adaptations to different locomotion habits (e.g., arboreal, scansorial, cursorial, and semiaquatic). Gross digestive morphology also varies partially with diet in a few studied species, but digestive histology data are still too incipient for adequate form-function estimates. While the knowledge on reproductive anatomy is highly unbalanced, information on reproductive behavior is too scarce and anecdotal for reliable inferences on the function of known reproductive morphology. Overall, while the few better-studied taxa are revealing interesting patterns of relationships between morphology, function, and history in Didelphidae, the family still needs more detailed analyses, given its ecological and taxonomic diversity.

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Acknowledgments

DA is funded by grants from FACEPE, CAPES, and CNPq that allowed for the data compilation that resulted in this work. GNG is funded by a CAPES Ph.D. fellowship at UFMG.

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  1. Laboratório de Mastozoologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil

    Diego Astúa

  2. Laboratório de Mastozoologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

    Gabby Guilhon

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  1. Diego Astúa
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Correspondence to Diego Astúa .

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  1. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil

    Nilton C. Cáceres

  2. School of Life and Environmental Science, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

    Christopher R. Dickman

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  1. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil

    Nilton Cáceres Ph.D.

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Astúa, D., Guilhon, G. (2022). Morphology, Form, and Function in Didelphid Marsupials. In: Cáceres, N.C., Dickman, C.R. (eds) American and Australasian Marsupials. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88800-8_8-1

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