Questions

The shortest gestation period known is 12 to 13 days, shared by three marsupials: the American or Virginian opossum (Didelphis marsupialis); the rare water opossum, or yapok (Chironectes minimus) of central and northern South America; and the eastern native cat (Dasyurus viverrinus) of Australia.

Gestation is the period of time between fertilization and birth in oviparous animals.

The elephant has the longest gestation period of about 23 months of any land animal.

When a program forks and the child finishes before the parent, the kernel still keeps some of its information about the child in case the parent might need it – for example, the parent may need to check the child’s exit status. To be able to get this information, the parent calls `wait()’; In the interval between the child terminating and the parent calling `wait()’, the child is said to be a `zombie’ (If you do `ps’, the child will have a `Z’ in its status field to indicate this.)