Life began to appear on Earth 4.1 billion years ago, and some creatures disappeared into the long river of history, such as dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, mammoths, etc., and we can only understand these creatures from fossils. The current human history is about 6 million years old (the millennium discovered in 2000, named after the year of discovery), in fact, there is nothing to be proud of, because there are still more ancient "living fossil" animals on the earth, and the possum is one of them.
Dinosaur fossils
Possums, which live mainly in Latin America, have been on Earth for about 70 million years and are marsupials that have successfully settled in the Americas. Small possums are only the size of mice, and large ones can have the size of cats, they are mild, nocturnal, omnivorous, mainly preying on insects, snails and other invertebrates, but also eat plant food.
One of the "living fossils", possums, marsupials
As a species with many natural enemies, what unique survival skills does the possum have to allow it to survive 70 million years on Earth? The answer is simple: pretend to be dead. When encountering a predator that cannot run and cannot be beaten, the possum will open its mouth and stick out its tongue, close its eyes, and at the same time inflate its stomach very large, and at the same time secrete a foul-smelling liquid from the stink glands, making the other party think that it is dead and rotten, even if it is touched by predators. After all, most animals like fresh food, possum heart: I don't believe, my piece of "rotten meat" you still go to the mouth.
Possum possums pretending to be dead
The cute image of the possum also often appears in film and television works. For example, in the animated film Ice Age 2, the possum family adopts a mammoth, Ellie, who always considers herself an unusually developed possum, climbing trees, drilling rock crevices, and hanging upside down.
Possum in Ice Age 2
Supplementary knowledge: There are about 240 species of marsupials in the world, of which about 170 live in Oceania, such as kangaroos, koalas, etc. Australia is a veritable "marsupial country". About 70 other species of marsupials live in Latin America, such as possums and nanyi.