the.com/marsupial
Mammals that give up on the womb halfway through and finish the job in a pocket.
means A mammal that gives birth to tiny, underdeveloped young which then crawl to a pouch to nurse and finish growing.
from From Latin 'marsupium,' meaning pouch or purse, which itself came from Greek 'marsipion,' a small bag. The word was borrowed into scientific Latin to name the pouch-bearing mammals, so kangaroos and opossums are, etymologically, just animals that carry their luggage.
- newborn size
- a kangaroo joey is born the size of a jellybean
- not just kangaroos
- opossums are the only marsupial native to North America
- pouch direction
- wombat pouches face backward so digging doesn't fill them with dirt
- ancient split
- marsupials and placental mammals diverged over 100 million years ago