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An early birth removes a developing marsupial from its mother's body much sooner than in placentals; thus marsupials have not developed a complex placenta to protect the embryo from its mother's immune system. Though early birth puts the tiny newborn marsupial at greater environmental risk, it significantly reduces the dangers associated with ...
The name is something of a misnomer, considering that marsupials also nourish their fetuses via a placenta, [1] though for a relatively briefer period, giving birth to less-developed young, which are then nurtured for a period inside the mother's pouch.
The latter subclass is divided into two infraclasses: pouched mammals (metatherians or marsupials), and placental mammals (eutherians, for which see List of placental mammals). Classification updated from Wilson and Reeder's "Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference" using the "Planet Mammifères" website. [1]
Marsupials' reproductive systems differ markedly from those of placentals, [10] [11] though it is probably the plesiomorphic condition found in viviparous mammals, including non-placental eutherians. [12] During embryonic development, a choriovitelline placenta forms in all marsupials.
The class Mammalia is divided into two subclasses based on reproductive techniques: monotremes, which lay eggs, and therians, mammals which give live birth, which has two infraclasses: marsupials/metatherians and placentals/eutherians. See List of monotremes and marsupials, and for the clades and families, see Mammal classification ...
Like birds and reptiles, monotremes have a single cloaca. [20] Marsupials have a separate genital tract, whereas most placental females have separate openings for reproduction (the vagina), urination (the urethra), and defecation (the anus). In monotremes, only semen passes through the penis while urine is excreted through the male's cloaca. [21]
Because the yolk sac is formed earlier than the allantois in embryo development, a choriovitelline placenta can form earlier than the chorioallantoic placenta. [1] All marsupials maintain a choriovitelline placenta. (However, bandicoots also have a chorioallantoic placenta.) Primates do not form any choriovitelline placenta.
Due to the fact that placental mammals and marsupials nourish their developing embryos via the placenta, the ovum in these species does not contain significant amounts of yolk, and the yolk sac in the embryo is relatively small in size, in comparison with both the size of the embryo itself and the size of yolk sac in embryos of comparable developmental age from lower chordates.