I had a new visitor to my backyard one recent evening, a possum — or more correctly, an opossum, also known as Didelphis virginiana in scientific circles.
Not to be unkind, but that possum was not a lovely creature. I thought it resembled a big gray rat. Its pointy snout and long, scaly tail certainly looked rat-like.
The possum is a cat-sized animal that is among the oldest, most primitive creatures in the New World. It has been called a living fossil since it has remained unchanged for at least 50 million years.
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