Marg -
Mouse in a matchbox? WOW...that took some work!
I was thinking of Dermestid beetles. Probably one of the most fascinating things I've ever watched. (gross warning for others)
Yeah. Them things. Couldn't remember the name of them for a bit.
And it was a planigale, they're actually a bit smaller than a mouse.
Definitely a job for beetles.
We also had snake skeletons on display at the uni, the best-looking ones came from China. The vertebrae seem to almost have a ball and socket joint between each bone.
Back to marsupial mouse thoughts - I don't think the planigale is in this category, but a slightly bigger cousin, the antechinus (still smaller than a mouse, I think) may have the right idea when it comes to reproduction - the males literally bonk themselves to death.
I kid you not.
Mating takes several days, after which the males' bodies just shut down in total exhaustion, shock, depletion - you name it. As a result, they have lots of babies (50% of them males) each breeding season. And no, they haven't got a proper pouch (you'd never fit in all those babies!) but they have a shallow depression on their tummies where the babies latch on to a teat and stay there until they're big enough to ride around on their mother's back. They're not pretty. Think- small, ferocious, carnivorous opossum with about twenty babies on its back ready to take down creatures many times their size in the desperation for a meal.
And heads very flat and triangular, so they can slip between cracks in rocks and survive in amazing conditions, even huge fires. They can fit in a crack in a rock that would give a spider difficulty.
Marg