Re: OT:possums/copperheads
- To: <i*@onelist.com>
- Subject: Re: OT:possums/copperheads
- From: "* a* C* W* <c*@digitalpla.net>
- Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 08:10:10 -0600
From: "Jeff and Carolyn Walters" <cwalters@digitalpla.net>
Joni in GA writes:
> Jan -
> Here in Georgia, the Copperheads are snakes, like yours, but they don't
look
> exactly the same. They ARE very dangerous and scare the dickens out of
me!
> Our possums are very different than yours. They are ugly little
creatures
> with pointed noses and long tails that have no hair on them. Much like
large
> rats.
> South of here, in Florida, the armadillo is
> their version of the possum. We call them "possum on the half shell"!
American possums (from "opossum", a Native American word meaning "white
beast") are marsupials, just like the animals Jan is familiar with (in
fact, I believe they are the only marsupials found outside the Australian
region). Armadillos are placental mammals, just like all the rest of the
ones found in North America. Both possums and armadillos migrated here from
South America when a land bridge, the Isthmus of Panama, was formed between
the two continents about two million years ago.
Jeff Walters in northern Utah (USDA Zone 4, Sunset Zone 2)
cwalters@digitalpla.net
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