A rendering of the early marsupial relative, Didelphodon vorax. This opossum-sized mammal had pound-for-pound, the strongest bite force of any mammal ever recorded and could eat a wide variety of foods, including snails and small dinosaurs.
Dr. Gregory Wilson, Burke Museum Adjunct Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology and University of Washington Associate Professor of Biology, holds a fossilized Didelphodon skull.
Dr. Wilson and colleagues examined four fossilized specimens of Didelphodon vorax, including a partial snout (far-left), a mostly-complete skull (second-left) and two upper jaw bones (right).
A close-up of the snout of a Didelphodon from the Burke Museum’s collection. Features not seen on the skulls of present-day marsupials suggest that it had a highly mobile snout.