Karimi's fat-tailed mouse opossum (''Thylamys karimii'') is a species of

opossum Opossums () are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia () endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 126 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North A ...

in the family Didelphidae. It is endemic to central and northeast

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, where it is found in the

cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

and

caatinga Caatinga () is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" comes from the Tupi word '' ka'atinga'', meaning "white forest" or "white vegetat ...

at elevations from 300 to 1100 m. This opossum is crepuscular and mostly terrestrial; its omnivorous diet includes leaves, insects and small vertebrates. Its head-and-body length is about 95 millimeters, and its tail length is about 72 millimeters. It is very similar to ''T. pallidor''. Its tail may be nonprehensile. The species is named after Iranian epidemiologist Y. Karimi. It is threatened by

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

and fragmentation due to agriculture and ranching.

References

Opossums Fauna of the Cerrado Fauna of the Caatinga Marsupials of Brazil Endemic mammals of Brazil Mammals described in 1968 {{marsupial-stub