Some List Animals Until Failure players tell me American opossums are not possums, and Australasian possums are not opossums; in other words, possums live in America, opossums live in Australasia. However, according to Wikipedia (the game's source of truth) opossums are possums.
A paragraph in the gameover screen explains this. But maybe what you need isn't a paragraph. Maybe you need an example.
So consider Virginia opossum. Not even the whole page; just consider the first two sentences. What is this animal called?
The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), also known as the North American opossum, is a member of the opossum family found from southern Canada to northern Costa Rica, making it the northernmost marsupial in the world.[7] Commonly referred to simply as the possum,[8] (distinct from the Australasian possum) it is a solitary nocturnal animal about the size of a domestic cat, and a successful opportunist.
Already from this one species we can conclude that “possum” and “opossum” are not mutually exclusive terms. In the similar case of wallabies vs kangaroos, I made the same (controversial) conclusion: since the antilopine wallaroo is referred to as both a wallaby and a kangaroo, you can't get two points for listing “wallaby” and “kangaroo”. You have to list a specific non-wallaby kangaroo to get the second point. Similarly, if by “possum” you really mean “Australasian possum”, then type that. Otherwise, it's fair to assume you might mean the American (o)possum
I know what you're thinking:
opossum independence
if we're gonna be pedantic and make chipmunks and squirrels the same thing we should be pedantic enough to know the difference between opossum and possum
Well, hear me out.
My game strives to agree with Wikipedia. The first five words of Chipmunk are:
Chipmunks are small, striped squirrels
So of course chipmunks are squirrels. On the other hand, Possum is not even its own article. It is a disambiguation page including American opossums.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Possum may refer to:
Animals
American possums
- Opossum, or Didelphimorphia, an order of marsupials native to the Americas
- Didelphis, a genus of marsupials within Didelphimorphia
Australasian possums
- Phalangeriformes, also called (o)possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi
- Common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), a common possum in Australian urban areas, invasive in New Zealand
- Common ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus), also common in Australian urban areas, absent from New Zealand
- Phalangeridae (possums and cuscuses), a family of marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea containing most of the species referred to as "possums" in Australia
But even historically
The Virginia opossum has been called a possum longer than Australasian possums have. The Virginia opossum was the first (o)possum to be named in English, loanworded from Powhatan (aka Virginia Algonquin). “Possum” was first recorded a few years later.
Then, the possums of Australasia were named after the Virginia (o)possum for their visual resemblance. So if the Virginia (o)possum were not a possum, then the Australasian possums would never have been possums either. Australasian possums are called possums because American possums are called possums. The American and Australasian possums have shared an English name for as long as they have both had English names.
For all I know, there could be a strong case against all this, and Wikipedia's statements could stem from Americentrist bias, or could simply be incorrect. But List Animals Until Failure is based on Wikipedia. If you have a strong argument that opossums aren't possums, then by all means email me to argue, but more importantly, update Wikipedia. If Wikipedia stops claiming opossums are called possums, I'll update my game. List Animals Until Failure has always been a bit of a ploy to get people to update Wikipedia and Wikidata.