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Marsupial koalas of Australia have evolved fingerprints, indistinguishable from those of non-related primates, such as humans. [ 14 ] The Australian honey possums acquired a long tongue for taking nectar from flowers, a structure similar to that of butterflies , some moths, and hummingbirds, and used to accomplish the same task.
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 ]
The evolution of the digestive system has formed a significant influence in mammal evolution. With the emergence of mammals, the digestive system was modified in a variety of ways depending on the animal's diet. For example, cats and most carnivores have simple large intestines, while the horse as a herbivore has a voluminous large intestine. [127]
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.
The timeline of human evolution outlines the major events in the evolutionary lineage of the modern human species, Homo sapiens, throughout the history of life, beginning some 4 billion years ago down to recent evolution within H. sapiens during and since the Last Glacial Period.
Metatheria is a mammalian clade that includes all mammals more closely related to marsupials than to placentals.First proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1880, it is a more inclusive group than the marsupials; it contains all marsupials as well as many extinct non-marsupial relatives.
Theria (/ ˈ θ ɪər i ə / or / ˈ θ ɛr i ə /; from Ancient Greek θηρίον (thēríon) 'wild beast') is a subclass of mammals [2] amongst the Theriiformes.Theria includes the eutherians (including the placentals) and the metatherians (including the marsupials) but excludes the egg-laying monotremes and various extinct mammals evolving prior to the common ancestor of placentals and ...
One study based on DNA analysis suggests that Scandentia and Primates are sister clades, but does not discuss the position of Dermoptera. [9] Although it is known that Scandentia is one of the most basal Euarchontoglires clades, the exact phylogenetic position is not yet considered resolved, and it may be a sister of Glires, Primatomorpha or Dermoptera or to all other Euarchontoglires.