 "M. dimidiata" is thought to be a miniature analog to the marsupial sabertooths "Thylacosmilus".Like extinct sabertooth predators, it has one of the largest canines of any marsupial relative to body size and was proposed as a living model to test hypotheses about hunting strategies of the extinct predators.Yellow-sided opossums also show a variety of behaviors used in social contexts, including male-to-male agonistic rituals, and a variety of vocalizations whose social or adaptive significance deserves further investigation.