Marsupial mammal — Didelphodon vorax

Geologic period: Latest Cretaceous — Maastrichtian

Age: Approximately 69 to 66 million years ago for well-documented Hell Creek specimens.

Taxonomic note: The Smithsonian inventory uses the visitor-friendly label 'marsupial mammal.' Modern phylogenetic work more cautiously places Didelphodon as a metatherian close to marsupials.

Feeding: Predatory and scavenging behavior with strong evidence for hard-object feeding or durophagy.

Locomotion: Terrestrial or semiaquatic interpretations have both been discussed; exact locomotor ecology remains uncertain.

Body plan: Relatively large Mesozoic therian mammal with a robust skull and powerful crushing teeth.

Evidence: Skull, jaw and tooth anatomy indicate unusually strong bite forces and hard-object processing.

Why it matters: Didelphodon breaks the stereotype that all mammals living with dinosaurs were tiny generalized insect eaters.

Plain Language Identity: A large Late Cretaceous metatherian mammal close to the evolutionary branch that includes marsupials.

What You Are Looking At: A composite reconstruction of Didelphodon vorax.

Ecosystem: Latest Cretaceous Hell Creek ecosystems.

Preservation: Visitor object is a composite cast.

Open Questions: Its exact locomotor ecology should not be stated as settled.

Source Urls: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour/current-exhibits/deep-time-virtual-tour-fossil-list; https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13734; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5155139/

Enrichment Method: SAGE curated research pass; title + scientific name + source scene matched; display reconstruction separated from evidence; provenance uncertainty retained

Scientific name: Didelphodon vorax

Evidence / representation: Representative evidence-type visual; not the exact specimen.

Representative evidence-type visual; not the exact specimen.

T. rex & Triceratops: The Last American Dinosaur World.