Marsupials in the context of "Diprotodontia"

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⭐ Core Definition: Marsupials

Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a relatively undeveloped state and then nurtured within a pouch on their mother's abdomen. Extant marsupials encompass many species, including kangaroos, koalas, opossums, possums, Tasmanian devils, wombats, wallabies, and bandicoots.

Marsupials constitute a clade stemming from the last common ancestor of extant Metatheria, which encompasses all mammals more closely related to marsupials than to placentals. The evolutionary split between placentals and marsupials occurred 125–160 million years ago in the Middle Jurassic–Early Cretaceous period.

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👉 Marsupials in the context of Diprotodontia

Diprotodontia (/daɪˌproʊtəˈdɒntiə/) is the largest extant order of marsupials, with about 155 species, including the kangaroos, wallabies, possums, koala, wombats, and many others. Extinct diprotodonts include the hippopotamus-sized Diprotodon, and Thylacoleo, the so-called "marsupial lion".

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Marsupials in the context of Placenta

The placenta (pl.: placentas or placentae) is a temporary embryonic and later fetal organ that begins developing from the blastocyst shortly after implantation. It plays critical roles in facilitating nutrient, gas, and waste exchange between the physically separate maternal and fetal circulations, and is an important endocrine organ, producing hormones that regulate both maternal and fetal physiology during pregnancy. The placenta connects to the fetus via the umbilical cord, and on the opposite aspect to the maternal uterus in a species-dependent manner. In humans, a thin layer of maternal decidual (endometrial) tissue comes away with the placenta when it is expelled from the uterus following birth (sometimes incorrectly referred to as the 'maternal part' of the placenta). Placentas are a defining characteristic of placental mammals, but are also found in marsupials and some non-mammals with varying levels of development.

Mammalian placentas probably first evolved about 150 million to 200 million years ago. The protein syncytin, found in the outer barrier of the placenta (the syncytiotrophoblast) between mother and fetus, has a certain RNA signature in its genome that has led to the hypothesis that it originated from an ancient retrovirus: essentially a virus that helped pave the transition from egg-laying to live-birth.

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Marsupials in the context of Pouch (marsupial)

The pouch is a distinguishing feature of female marsupials and monotremes, and rarely in males as well, such as in the yapok and the extinct thylacine. The name marsupial is derived from the Latin marsupium, meaning "pouch". This is due to the occurrence of epipubic bones, a pair of bones projecting forward from the pelvis. Marsupials give birth to a live but relatively undeveloped foetus called a joey. When the joey is born it crawls from inside the mother to the pouch. The pouch is a fold of skin with a single opening that covers the teats. Inside the pouch, the blind offspring attaches itself to one of the mother's teats and remains attached for as long as it takes to grow and develop to a juvenile stage.

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Marsupials in the context of Epipubic bone

Epipubic bones are a pair of bones projecting forward from the pelvic bones of modern marsupials, monotremes and fossil mammals like multituberculates, and even basal eutherians (the ancestors of placentals, who lack them).They first occur in non-mammalian cynodonts such as tritylodontids, suggesting that they are a synapomorphy between them and Mammaliformes.

They were first described as early as 1698, but to date, their function(s) remain unresolved. Epipubic bones are often called marsupial bones because they support the mother's pouch in modern marsupials ("marsupium" is Latin for "pouch").

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Marsupials in the context of Foregut fermentation

Foregut fermentation is a form of digestion that occurs in the foregut of some animals such as the hamster rat, langur monkey, and the hippopotamus. It has evolved independently in several groups of mammals, and also in the hoatzin, a bird species.

Foregut fermentation is employed by ruminants and pseudoruminants, some rodents and some marsupials. It has also evolved in colobine monkeys and in sloths.

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Marsupials in the context of Thylacosmilidae

Thylacosmilidae is an extinct family of metatherian predators, related to the modern marsupials, which lived in South America between the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. Like other South American mammalian predators that lived prior to the Great American Biotic Interchange, these animals belonged to the order Sparassodonta, which occupied the ecological niche of many eutherian mammals of the order Carnivora from other continents. The family's most notable feature are the elongated, laterally flattened fangs, which is a remarkable evolutionary convergence with other saber-toothed mammals like Barbourofelis and Smilodon.

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Marsupials in the context of Eu-

This is a list of common affixes used when scientifically naming species, particularly extinct species for whom only their scientific names are used, along with their derivations.

  • -ales: Pronunciation: /ˈa.lis/. Origin: Latin: -ālis. Meaning: Used to form taxonomic names of orders for plants and fungi.
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Marsupials in the context of Notamacropus

Notamacropus is a genus of small marsupials in the family Macropodidae, commonly known as wallabies (among other species). The term is derived from the Latin nota "stripe" and macropus "kangaroo", referencing the distinct facial stripe of many extant genus members and their phylogenetic relationship toother kangaroos.

In 2019, a reassessment of macropod taxonomy determined that Notamacropus and Osphranter, formerly considered subgenera of Macropus, should be moved to the genus level. This change was accepted by the Australian Faunal Directory in 2020.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Placenta ← Pouch (marsupial) ← Epipubic bone ← Foregut fermentation ← Thylacosmilidae ← Eu- ← Notamacropus ← Diprotodontia
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Mammal → Infraclass → Australasia → Wallacea → Americas → Kangaroo → Koala → Opossum → Phalangeriformes → Tasmanian devil → Wombat → Wallaby → Bandicoot → Metatheria → Placentalia → Middle Jurassic → Early Cretaceous →