First biofluorescent mammal

The first species of mammal found to be naturally biofluorescent was the North American (Virginia) opossum Didelphis virginiana, the only marsupial species native to the USA and Canada. In 1983, a study of this ostensibly well-known, scientifically familiar species by Donna H Meisner, published in the Ohio Journal of Science, had featured the shining of UV (aka "black") light upon specimens, and as Meisner revealed, the skin and undercoat of the opossums glowed bright pink. This meant that the wavelength of light re-emitted by the opossums' fur was much longer than that of the UV light that had been shone upon it.

In 1985, a more wide-ranging survey of biofluorescence in New World marsupials was published in the journal Mammalia, in which it was revealed that several different species of South American didelphid opossum also biofluoresced, approximately one-third of the total number of opossum species surveyed in the study, in fact, which used museum skins and taxidermy specimens.