Whoa, I can see something wrong with the pose of thise specimen already... the babies are hanging off the mom's tail??? I don't know where they got that, they musta been watching too many disney cartoons.

Yes, its incorrect. Victorian taxidermy is filled with "sausage" looking animals, anatomical incorrectness, & all sorts of oddities.
It was turn-of-the-century work <shrugs> Babies hanging off the tail is a pretty minor fault compared to most, actually find it rather amusing looking.

If it's that old, then I wonder if they were calling it a "Monkeyfox" when they were making it O.o

And actually, the fault isn't *too* bad. The joeys are on the mother's back for the most part and that would be ok. They can't hang by the tail for long, but it's possible. Perhaps that was planned to go with the angle of her desent - to make it look like they were trying to hang on and not fall off. That leaves the mother without counter-balance so that's the biggest mistake in it I see.

"Sausage" looking animals? O_o Are those right up there with the "Fiji Mermaid"? lol

And here I was thinking I was alone in intelligently critiquing the taxidermy :)

The "sausage" animal is more a style of taxidermy. The body is overstuffed and winds up having no anatomical detail, looking more like a sausage or tubular baloon than a once living animal. Figi mermaids at least take an ounce of skill to produce, 'sausages" are quick & dirty, taking none. Wind up with something barely identifiable. Ill have to dig through my archived photos to see if I have any 'sausages' to post. They are amusing!

Interesting.. I'll definitely have to look wround for some of those XD

And I also noticed that the joeys are far too young, from the looks of it. They look like they died within a month or two of birth... and by that time they shouldn't even have been out of the pouch, let alone clinging to mother's back. Is that just what I see? Or do they really look as young as I think?

Not sure. I thought they looked a bit young, but Im just not familiar with possum growth & developement.
Most of my knowledge has come from dissecting roadkill in class. Very few had pouch young and none of those were far along (didnt even have fur.)

from what I can tell, the fur growth on these is minimal. And size is another factor - they are far too small in comparison to the mother. I'd definitely think that those were pouch-babies when they died. Whenever I see a female opossum with the young on her back, they are more developed. (fur, size, etc.)

Thanks for letting me know!

Heh, sorry ^^; .. I'm annoyingly obsessive like that... A LOT lol

Dont apologise. Im actually quite happy that you let me know. Im a biologist & can be just as obsessive. Marsupials (mostly dasuryids) are my major interest & I learned a bit that I didnt know and an area I could use to do more research in. Just requested 4 books on marsupial developement through my college library. It will give me something to do during winter break.