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    Thursday, July 16, 2015

    Information about Marsupials

    Information about Marsupials


    Marsupials are mammals that have an external pouch (marsupium) in which the immature young are raised after birth until early infancy. Due to early birth, the young are born undeveloped, and they crawl in to the mother's pouch to grow further. Marsupials are found in Australia, Central And South America, New Zealand and on a few islands in the Pacific. Kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and opossums are the most commonly known marsupials.


    The pouch

    All marsupials do not have a permanent pouch. It is formed by a temporary fold of the skin that swells up to from a sac during the breeding season and disappears after the baby has developed. Usually, carnivorous mammals such as quolls, dunnarts and phascogales have a temporary pouch. Inside the pouch, the newborns are permanently attached to the mother's nipple. Once they grow, they live the pouch and return only when theyy feel threatened or to sleep. Kangaroos and wallabies allow their young to stay in the pouch even after the young once are capable of managing on their own. A few marsupials do not have a pouch at all.
    Evolution

    Marsupials and placental mammals branched out from monotremes during the Cretaceous Period. The primitive marsupials and four pairs of molar teeth in each jaw, while the placental mammals didn't have more than three pairs. Sinodelphys szalayi is the earliest known marsupial. It lived in China around 125 million years ago. After the division of the supercontinent Pangaea, the marsupials finally found themselves inhabiting Australia. the wide variety of marsupials seen today evolved in Australia. In the resent times, modern marsupials seem to have reached the islands of Borneo or Sulawesi through Australia.

    Joeys

    A baby marsupial is called 'joey' and is only the size of a jelly bean. The baby is born blind, naked and furless. A joey cannot regulate its own body temperature and depends upon external heat. The pouch temperature must constantly be around 30-32 degree C for the joey to feel comfortable. After the full development, the joey spends long periods outside the pouch to feed itself and learn survival skills.
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