A genus of brush-tailed possums found chiefly in Australia and New Zealand. Secretions from their ANAL GLAND function both in defense and demarcating territory.

New World marsupials of the family Didelphidae. Opossums are omnivorous, largely nocturnal and arboreal MAMMALS, grow to about three feet in length, including the scaly prehensile tail, and have an abdominal pouch in which the young are carried at birth.

An infraclass of MAMMALS, also called Metatheria, where the young are born at an early stage of development and continue to develop in a pouch (marsupium). In contrast to Eutheria (placentals), marsupials have an incomplete PLACENTA.

The mouth, teeth, jaws, pharynx, and related structures as they relate to mastication, deglutition, and speech.

A family of herbivorous leaping MAMMALS of Australia, New Guinea, and adjacent islands. Members include kangaroos, wallabies, quokkas, and wallaroos.

Several groups of nuclei in the thalamus that serve as the major relay centers for sensory impulses in the brain.

Occurrence or induction of release of more ova than are normally released at the same time in a given species. The term applies to both animals and humans.

A group of islands in the southwest Pacific. Its capital is Wellington. It was discovered by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642 and circumnavigated by Cook in 1769. Colonized in 1840 by the New Zealand Company, it became a British crown colony in 1840 until 1907 when colonial status was terminated. New Zealand is a partly anglicized form of the original Dutch name Nieuw Zeeland, new sea land, possibly with reference to the Dutch province of Zeeland. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p842 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p378)