Morfología comparada de cráneo y dentición de Didelphis albiventris y D. marsupialis (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae)

FLORES, D.A. AND F. ABDALA.

Revista Científica de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Río Grande do Sul, Brazil

Año: 2001 vol. 14 p. 101 - 110

The comparative study of the skull and the dentition of Didelphis albiventris and Didelphis marsupialis showed a conspicuous morphological homogeneity between these species. Only five features in the skull and one in the dentition were identified as morphological diferences. Among the skull features, differences included the shape of the palatine process of the premaxilla, the development of the supraorbital and suborbital processes, and the shape of the interna acoustic meatus and petrosal inferior sulcus. The difference in the dentition was the shape of the second upper premolar. Individual variation for the two species in the position and outline of cranial sutures and in the presence and position of the stylar cusps C in the upper molars are also discussed. The variation of the stylar cusp C is specially interesting, considering the late origin of such cusps in basal marsupials, as well as the fact that these cusps appear independently in different marsupial lineages.