What is the only marsupial native to North America?
Marsupial are two primary divisions: American marsupials (Ameridelphia) and Australian marsupials (Australidelphia). Marsupialia is further divided as follows: † - Extinct Comprising over 300 extant species, several attempts have been made to accurately interpret the phylogenetic relationships among the different marsupial orders. Studies differ on whether Didelphimorphia or Paucituberculata is the sister group to all other marsupials. Though the order Microbiotheria (which has only one species, the monito del monte) is found in South America, morphological similarities suggest it is closely related to Australian marsupials. Molecular analyses in 2010 and 2011 identified Microbiotheria as the sister group to all Australian marsupials.
Marsupial metatherian is "Sinodelphys szalayi", which lived in China around 125 mya. This makes it a contemporary to some early eutherian species which have been found in the same area. While placental fossils dominate in Asia, marsupial fossils occur in larger numbers in North America. The oldest metatherian fossils are found in present-day China. About 100 mya, the supercontinent Pangaea was in the process of splitting into the northern continent Laurasia and the southern continent Gondwana, with what would become China and Australia already separated by the Tethys Ocean. From there, metatherians spread westward into modern North America (still attached to