The
marsupials and
placentals diverged from a pantotheran
stem stock in the late Cretaceous. The first
marsupials appeared in North America approximately 80 million years ago, e.g.
Full article >>>Marsupials do not produce a
shelled
egg. The
egg, which is poorly supplied with
yolk, is retained for a time within the reproductive tract of the mother. The
embryo penetrates the wall of the
uterus.
Full article >>>Marsupials reproduce in essentially the same manner, though their young are born at a far earlier stage of development than other
mammals.
Full article >>>marsupials Pouched
mammals. The young develop internally, but are born while in an
embryonic state and remain in a pouch on the mother's
abdomen until development is complete; this group includes kangaroos, koalas, and opossums.
Full article >>>marsupials: the
mammals whose
embryos develop within the mother's
uterus for a short period of time before birth.
Full article >>>In
marsupials, however, the paternal X
chromosome is always inactivated. Inactivation is achieved by
methylation of the X
chromosome DNA, a common way in which the
cell silences particular genes.
Full article >>>monotremesand
marsupials).
Embryo and
fetus are nourished by a
placenta. They are viviparous (producing young alive rather than lying eggs), have a
long period of gestation and the young is born immature.
Full article >>>Shared derived
characters that are regarded as homologous are called synapomorphies, e.g. the presence of
mammary glands in all three
lineages of
mammals (
monotremes,
marsupials and
placentals).
Full article >>>The
evolution from a relatively primitive and unspecialized type of
organism to several divergent forms specialized to fit numerous distinct and diverse ways of life, as occurred in Darwin's finches or the
marsupials of Australia.
Full article >>>'"/>