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The evolution of reproduction in marsupials, and speculation about the ancestral state of mammalian reproduction, have engaged discussion since the end of the 19th century. Both sexes possess a cloaca , [ 17 ] although modified by connecting to a urogenital sac and having a separate anal region in most species. [ 18 ]
Convergent evolution—the repeated evolution of similar traits in multiple lineages which all ancestrally lack the trait—is rife in nature, as illustrated by the examples below. The ultimate cause of convergence is usually a similar evolutionary biome , as similar environments will select for similar traits in any species occupying the same ...
Microbiotheriidae is a family of australidelphian marsupials represented by only one extant species, the monito del monte, and a number of extinct species known from fossils in South America, Western Antarctica, and northeastern Australia. [1]
Parallel evolution between marsupials and placentals [ edit ] A number of examples of parallel evolution are provided by the two main branches of the mammals , the placentals and marsupials , which have followed independent evolutionary pathways following the break-up of land-masses such as Gondwanaland roughly 100 million years ago.
For instance, the striking example of similar placental and marsupial forms is described by Richard Dawkins in The Blind Watchmaker as a case of convergent evolution, because mammals on each continent had a long evolutionary history prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs under which to accumulate relevant differences.
Microbiotheria is an australidelphian marsupial order that encompasses two families, Microbiotheriidae and Woodburnodontidae, [1] and is represented by only one extant species, the monito del monte, and a number of extinct species known from fossils in South America, Western Antarctica, and northeastern Australia.
This is a list of adaptive radiated marsupials by form; they are adaptively radiated marsupial species equivalent to the many niche-types of non-marsupial mammals. Many of the surviving species are from Australia. There are unique types, for example the extinct genus Nototherium, a 'rhinoceros-type'. [1]
The Macropodidae are an extant family of marsupial with the distinction of the ability to move bipedally on the hind legs, sometimes by jumping, as well as quadrupedally. They are herbivores , but some fossil genera like Ekaltadeta are hypothesised to have been carnivores . [ 1 ]