Didelphidae
Pronounced di-DEL-fu-dee
There are three species in this marsupial family and only one of their representatives lives in North America. In fact, the American opossum is the only marsupial in North America. Marsupials are best known by their Australian representatives: the kangaroo, wombat, and koala bear. They are physiologically different from all other mammals in that most of the females have a marsupium, an abdominal pouch used to carry and nurture offspring (Nowak 1991).