Possums and Opossums

Before Wednesday's Barony meeting, I was wondering why we have Opossums and not Possums. It was a strange conversation about winter and ticks. Possums and Opossums are different animals but who gave them similar names. Short version: English colonizers of Jamestown recorded the name Opossum in 1610. It was most likely their attempt to pronounce the Native American name for the critter. Then, in the late 18th Century, English naturalist Sir Joseph Banks saw a critter in Australia, also a nocturnal marsupial, and decided that it looks like the American Opossum, and he will name this "new" critter Possum, dropping the 'O' because that will help to "avoid" confusion. 

Here's the thing: They look nothing alike. Opossums look like giant rats and Possums look like what you would get if you cross a fox and a chipmunk. They live on opposite sides of the planet, and they have completely different diets. Trust an English naturalist to fuck things up for centuries. Of course, he couldn't have asked any of the natives what they called the tiny critters (Mundarda, in case you were wondering).