# Did you know opossums and possums are different animals? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 1, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554 "2016-12-01T20:41:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/21 "2016-12-02T11:34:58Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > But are they not, zoologically-officially, correctly titled “opossums” – although in ordinary discourse, people virtually always say / write “possums”? Actually, they’re not. Australian possums are never anything but “possum” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/22 "2016-12-02T11:38:55Z")
Found [a site](http://espanolinternacional.blogspot.com.es/2016/05/palabras-de-origen-portugues.html) which says _çarigueia_ comes from Guaraní, _sarigweya, sarigué_ [This PDF](http://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Apapavero-2014-zoonimia/papavero_teixeira_2014_zoonimia.pdf) lists Tupí instead, but from what I see poking around, Guaranís are considered part of a larger Tupí ethnia, so the two origins actually kind of match (_carigue_, in page 159). [This other site](http://babosadasyhierbas.blogspot.com.es/2006/03/glosario.html) provides an alternate name, _tacuacín_. It doesn’t mention what native language it’s from, but the writer is from Guatemala. Local languages include Maya, Garífuna and Xinca as well as the official Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/23 "2016-12-02T12:16:23Z")
While we’re at it on bears and raccoons, there are two different animals called “panda”. The lesser or red panda is fairly closely related to raccoons, while the giant panda is a kind of bear. This caused a lot of confusion until people realized that the two kinds of panda weren’t closely related to each other. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/24 "2016-12-02T12:17:27Z")
In the parts of Mexico I’ve lived (Yucatán and Oaxaca), the most common is the Nahuatl-derived word: _tlachuache_. In Yucatán, many also say _zorro_ – literally, “fox” – for the (o)possum. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/25 "2016-12-02T12:27:49Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > [This other site](http://babosadasyhierbas.blogspot.com.es/2006/03/glosario.html) provides an alternate name, _tacuacín_. It doesn’t mention what native language it’s from, but the writer is from Guatemala. Local languages include Maya, Garífuna and Xinca as well as the official Spanish. It’s a word originally borrowed from the Nahuatl root that is today pronounced _tlacuache_ in Mexico. The Mexican word shows some Spanish-influenced modification, while the Guatemalan word shows some Mayan-languages-influenced modification (the big Mayan languages there include Quiche and Kakchiquel, but they’re closely related, and probably adopted/adapted the Nahuatl word more or less as a group). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/26 "2016-12-02T12:38:50Z")
\*\*Critter Control (and other sites making the claim) is wrong in saying that American opossums are not possums. American opossums are possums because American opossums have been _called_ possums for centuries. They seem to be confused about the difference between common names and _s_cientific names. Scientifically, what the 100+ species of pouched critters in the Americas are called is “Didelphimorphia” and what the 70+ species of pouched critters in Australia and New Guinea are called is “Phalangeriformes.” Commonly, an animal’s name is what people call it and other people know what they mean. [Photo of an American opossum](http://s313.photobucket.com/user/darrengarrison/media/nature/p1.jpg.html). [Photo of an American possum](http://s313.photobucket.com/user/darrengarrison/media/nature/p2.jpg.html). \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/27 "2016-12-02T12:56:23Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > But are they not, zoologically-officially, correctly titled “opossums” – although in ordinary discourse, people virtually always say / write “possums”? > [@Aspidistra](#): > > Actually, they’re not. Australian possums are never anything but “possum” I’ve done some Googling; and I stand corrected – while the word does seem originally to have been coined from the name of the North American animal: from the very outset, in Australasia the creature has indeed always been – as “officially” as you please, as well as less so – just “possum”. > **[Possums Compared to Opossums: What’s the Difference?](https://www.bobinoz.com/blog/4013/possums-and-opossums-australia-and-america-all-explained/)** > > Australia has possums and America has possums, but Australia’s possums are just cuter. Well, > not exactly! Possums and opossums are completely different animals. According to the above-linked blog, “It seems that all the confusion was started by Capt. Cook’s botanist, Sir Joseph Banks, who named the Australian animal a possum because it ‘looked like’ the American opossum.” **Nava** and **JKellyMap** – scholarship re South and Central American names, much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/28 "2016-12-02T17:46:06Z")
My wife’s cousin in New Zealand sent me a nice pair of merlino possum socks and a[possum willie warmer](http://nzsouvenirgifts.co.nz/?product=possum-fur-willy-warmer)for my last birthday. I also have a very nice merlino possum hat I bought in New Zealand a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/29 "2016-12-02T18:40:01Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > My wife’s cousin in New Zealand sent me a nice pair of merlino possum socks and a[possum willie warmer](http://nzsouvenirgifts.co.nz/?product=possum-fur-willy-warmer)for my last birthday. Shouldn’t that have [two openings](http://animaldiversity.org/collections/contributors/lucia_luna_wong/Pene_Lestors2/)? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/30 "2016-12-02T19:28:34Z")
It seems to me that Capt. Cook’s botanist should have called the Australian animal an Opossum because it looked (to him) like an Opossum. But he, like most people, called it a Possum for the same reason everyone else does. So, both are Opossums, but get called Possums. Is there any evidence he was trying to differentiate the two by lopping off the O, or he just didn’t know better either? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/31 "2016-12-02T20:36:48Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > My wife’s cousin in New Zealand sent me a nice pair of merlino possum socks and a[possum willie warmer](http://nzsouvenirgifts.co.nz/?product=possum-fur-willy-warmer)for my last birthday. I also have a very nice merlino possum hat I bought in New Zealand a few years ago. NSFSanity. Marsupials sure have weird genitals. IIRC male kangaroos have theirs upside down compared to us. Merino possum? Is that sheep + possum fur, or did they breed them together and harvest the fur from the unholy offspring? I’m surprised that Kiwis are willing to spare any of their sheep for possum lovin’! ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/32 "2016-12-02T20:38:01Z")
Yes. I also knew that the honey possum has the largest testes relative to its size and the largest sperm of any mammal. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/33 "2016-12-02T20:38:58Z")
BTW: If you catch a possum and plan on cooking it you should keep it in a cage for several weeks and feed it a steady diet of persimmons to improve the flavor. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/34 "2016-12-02T21:09:33Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > NSFSanity. Marsupials sure have weird genitals. IIRC male kangaroos have theirs upside down compared to us. Still less weird than [the Echidna](https://curiouscox.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/echidna-penis-i-echid-you-not/). ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/35 "2016-12-02T21:22:24Z")
The Opossum of the Americas is a marsupial, not a mammal. According to Ngram viewer, the word was first used in North American English from about 1760, and the word “possum” has always been more commonly used in American writing than “opossum” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=possum%2Copossum&year_start=1600&year_end=2000&corpus=5&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpossum%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Copossum%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer There are three species in Australia commonly known as ‘possum’ – two of them are marsupials and one a completely unrelated mammal. They could not possibly have been named before the first Europeans settled around 1800 and began naming the local fauna. So “possum” was in common usage in North America for decades (for ‘opossum’) before a similar animal in Australia assumed that name. It is not uncommon for settlers in a new land to name local animals for similar ones that they are already familiar with. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/36 "2016-12-02T21:37:19Z")
[Marsupials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsupial) _are_ mammals, thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/37 "2016-12-02T22:13:32Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > There are three species in Australia commonly known as ‘possum’ – two of them are marsupials and one a completely unrelated mammal. I mentioned Phalangeriformes and Didelphimorphia earlier. In [Phalangeriformes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalangeriformes), there are 30 species listed in the wiki with the name “possum.”\*\* In [Didelphimorphia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opossum#Classification), there are 99 (unless I lost count) species with "possum in their name. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/38 "2016-12-02T23:26:59Z")
99 possums, but a racoon ain’t one. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/39 "2016-12-03T00:46:06Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > [Marsupials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsupial) _are_ mammals, thank you very much. Yes, but it is still common to distinguish marsupials from an overwhelming majority (probably \>99.9%) of mammals that are plecental. All the others, bears and seals and bats, are, in non-technical literature, just called “mammals”. I poorly stated that, for brevity. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554/40 "2016-12-03T01:46:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > While we’re at it on bears and raccoons, there are two different animals called “panda”. The lesser or red panda is fairly closely related to raccoons, while the giant panda is a kind of bear. This caused a lot of confusion until people realized that the two kinds of panda weren’t closely related to each other. They’re easy to tell apart. Just go to a kung fu class and see which one is the teacher and which one is the student. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-opossums-and-possums-are-different-animals/773554.md?page=3)