What is a Marsupial?
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Marsupial animals are a group of mammals that typically carry their babies in a pouch outside of the mother's womb. They give birth to tiny babies that complete their development in this pouch. There are 334 species of marsupials worldwide. Of these, 234 live in Australia and New Guinea. The largest is the red kangaroo, which can grow to 2.1 meters in height. The smallest is the long-tailed planigale, which measure just 55-65 mm in length and weighing less than 5 grams.
List of Australian Marsupials
Koala
The Koala is a tree-dwelling marsupial, 70 to 90 cm long and weighing 4 to 15 kg. It has fluffy ears, a large black nose, and a cuddly appearance. Due to its teddy bear-like look, it's often mistakenly called a "koala bear." It lives in eucalyptus trees, eating leaves and sleeping up to 20 hours a day.
Read More about KoalasKangaroo
The Kangaroo is a fast and agile, herbivorous marsupial with a triangular body, large hind legs, small forelimbs, and a long, thick tail. It can grow up to 2 meters tall and weigh as much as 90 kg. Kangaroos can hop at speeds of 70 km/h and jump up to 3 meters high. Kangaroos cannot hop at low speeds.
Read More about KangaroosQuokka
The Quokka, with its permenant smile and cuddly teddy bear-like appearance seem like the happiest animals in the world. It is a herbivorous marsupial macropod about the size of a domestic cat. The quokka is almost extinct in the wild, with only about 13,000 quokkas surviving.
Read More about QuokkasTasmanian Devil
The Tasmanian Devil is a boisterous nocturnal marsupial with sharp teeth, devilish screeches, black fur, foul odour and aggressive behaviour. It is up to 60 cm long, 30 cm tall and weighs about 12 kg. It is primarily a scavenger and extinct except on the island of Tasmania.
Read More about Tasmanian DevilsWallaby
The Wallaby is a herbivorous, hopping marsupial with an upright posture, large hind legs, small forelimbs, a long thick tail, and large ears. It looks like a small kangaroo. There are 30 types of wallabies, ranging in size from 30 cm to 1.8 meters in length and weighing between 1 and 20 kg.
Read More about WallabiesWombat
The Wombat is a burrowing marsupial that look like a baby bear. It is about 1 meter long, weighs up to 40 kg and has soft, light brown to black fur, broad snouts, thick whiskers. It has a backwards-facing pouch entrance and does cube-shaped pop! Even though it looks slow can sprint at up to 40 km/h!
Read More about WombatsSugar Glider
The Sugar Glider is a small, nocturnal possum with excelent night vision that glides silently from tree to tree. About 200 to 300 mm in length and weighing just 140 grams, this agile creature is a solitary hunter, fiercely defending its territory from any intruder. It gets its name from its love of sugary sap.
Read More about Sugar GlidersTasmanian Tiger
The Tasmanian Tiger, or thylacine, was a large marsupial wolf, about 1 meter long, with a stiff tail and tiger-like stripes. It had black, cat-like eyes and a muzzle that could open 90 degrees. Hunted to extinction, the last thylacine died of neglect in a zoo on 7 September 1936. It froze to death!
Read More about Tasmanian TigersPossum
Australian Possums are shy, territorial, nocturnal tree-dwelling marsupials that vary greatly in size—from the tiny pygmy possum, no larger than a thumb, to the much larger brushtail possum, which can grow over a meter long. There are 23 species of possums in Australia.
Read More about PossumsNumbat
The Numbat is a small termite-eating marsupial with a pointed snout and a long sticky tongue for foraging. Though not an anteater, it is also sometimes called Banded Anteater or Marsupial Anteater. It weighs 400 to 700 grams and is 20 to 27 cm long. Its tongue is half the lenght of its body!
Read More about NumbatsAntechinus
The Antechinus is a ferocious marsupial with a hectic sex life. It is roughly the shape and size of a house mouse and has notched ears, which resemble double ears. The male exhibits suicidal mating behavior—he breeds only once, sometimes for up to 14 hours, and then dies.
Read More about AntechinusesRed Kangaroo
The Red Kangaroo is the largest marsupial and the largest hopping animal in the world. It can hop at speeds over 60 kph and leap up to 3 meters high. Male red kangaroos, known as "boomers," and are larger than females, which are called "flyers." Adults have few natural predators.
Read More about Red KangaroosWoylie
The Woylie is a small nocturnal marsupial fungivore with a long prehensile tail which it uses as an extra limb wraping it around bundles of nesting material and transports it home. The woylie is known as the brush-tailed bettong or brush-tailed rat-kangaroo.
Read More about WoyliesLeadbeater's Possum
The Leadbeater's Possum is a small fast-moving nocturnal marsupial with a long, bushy tail that lives high in the forest canopy and leap gracefully from one tree to another. Its diet consisting primarily of insects and tree sap. It was once thought to be extincts but is now classified as critically endangered.
Read More about LeadbeatersSpotted Quoll
The Spotted Quoll varies in length from 25 to 75cm and weigh between 300g and 7kg. There are four species in Australia, all with the distinctive spotted fur. They are the second-largest carnivorous marsupial and feed on small birds, lizards, and insects. They are endangered.
Read More about Spotted QuollsMusky Rat-Kangaroo
The Musky Rat-kangaroo is the smallest macropod, with a rat-like appearance and musky smell, and it does not hop. It lives in rainforests. As its name suggests, it looks a bit like a rat and weighs 330 to 680 g. Unlike other macropods, it is active during the day.
Read More about Rat-kangaroosMarsupial Mole
The Marsupial Mole (Itjaritjari) of the Australian desert is a small, sausage-shaped mammal that has no eyes or ears. It spends almost its entire life underground. It has specialized digging claws for burrowing through the sand and a bony shield to protect its nose.
Read More about Marsupial MolesGreater Bilby
The Greater Bilby is a small nocturnal, omnivorous marsupial with rabbit-like ears and a pointy pink snout. It has an excellent sense of smell and hearing, but very poor eyesight. The bilby has hind legs like a kangaroo, but it doesn't hop. At high speeds, it gallops like a horse!
Read More about BilbiesRingtail Possum
The Ringtail Possum is a small, arboreal, nocturnal marsupial that holds its tail in a tight coil—hence its name. About the size of a cat, it has two thumbs on each front paw that assist in climbing. It spends its life high in the trees and makes a high-pitched twittering sound.
Read More about Ring Tail PossumsTree Kangaroo
The Tree Kangaroo, as the name suggests, lives in trees. It climbs by wrapping its forelimbs around a tree and hopping up with its powerful hind legs. The tree kangaroo is omnivorous, eating leaves, fruit, flowers, bark, and even eggs and baby birds. It moves clumsily on the ground.
Read More about Tree KangaroosGilbert's potoroo
The Gilbert's Potoroo is the world's rarest marsupial. It has long front limbs with craved claws with which its digs for underground fungi (truffles). It is a herbivorous, nocturnal, weighs about one kilo and is about 27cm long. There are only 30-40 left in the wild.
Read More about Gilbert's PotoroosLesser Bilby
The Bilby was a small omnivorous nocturnal marsupial with blue-grey and white fur, pink rabbit-like ears, a long pointed snout and black and white tail. It became extinct in 1950 due to introduced rabbits and cats and foxes. It weighed 1-2.4kg and had excellent hearing and sense of smell.
Read More about Lesser BilbiesAntilopine Kangaroo
The Antilopine Kangaroo is the only kangaroo that lives entirely in the tropics. It has a slender face and doe-like eyes, like an antelope, hence its name. It is about 1.2 meters tall and weighs up to 49 kg. Its limbs are more slender and proportionally longer than those of other types of kangaroos.
Read More about AntilopineBandicoot
The Bandicoot is a small omnivorous nocturnal marsupial with pointy snouts, large hind feet, and it hops. It uses a slow bunny-hope. They can also jump vertically to 2m. There are 20 species of bandicoots in Australia. Bandicoots range in size from 28 to 81 cm in length and weigh 0.2 to 1.6 kg.
Read More about BandicootsBushtail Possum
The Brushtail Possum is a arboreal nocturnal marsupial found throughout Australia. It has a bushy prehensile tail, which it uses to grasp onto branches. It is a folivore, meaning it prefers eating leaves but supplements its diet other foods such as grasses, herbs, flowers, fruits and insects.
Read More about BrushtailsStick Nest Rat
The White-tipped Stick-nest Rat builds its nest from sticks, which it added to throughout its life, creating a massive nesting mound. It was a moderate-sized, nocturnal, herbivorous marsupial that weighed about 60 g. It was last sighted in 1933. European settlers contributed to its extinction.
Read More about Stick Nest RatsLong-tail Planigale
The Long-tailed Planigale resembles a tiny mouse with a long, bare tail. It is the smallest of all marsupials, weighing about as much as a teaspoon of sugar. Its tiny, flattened head allows it to squeeze into the smallest crevices. A fierce predator, it primarily preys on insects and their larvae, as well as small lizards and mammals.
Key Marsupial Characteristics
• Marsupials grow their baby in a pouch outside their body rather than in a womb like other mammals.
• Marsupial' s body temperature is approximately 3°C lower than that of placental mammals, and have basal metabolic rates that are about 30% lower. This adaptation helps them conserve energy and water, and making them exceptionally survivors in harsh environments. of around 35°C,
• Marsupials develop only one set of teeth in their lifetime—but they make it count by often boasting more teeth overall than their mammalian counterparts.
• Most marsupials are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night to avoid daytime heat, predators, and competition for food.
• Marsupials are typically solitary, and lack permanent social structures. Some, like kangaroos and wallabies, form loose casual groups called "mobs" when grazing.
• Most marsupials are capable swimmers, but only one species, the yapok of South America is truly aquatic.
Where Do Marsupials Live?
Marsupials live in Australia, New Guinea, southern USA, and Central and South America. Most Australian marsupials live in dry desert and shrub habitats, while American species are found in jungles and temperate zones.
What Do Marsupials Eat?
Photo: Koala feeding
Marsupials eat a wide variety of foods.
• Kangaroos, koalas and wombats, are herbivores, eating only plant matter.
• Bandicoots and possums, are omnivorous, eating plants and animals.
• The Tasmanian devil and the now-extinct Tasmanian tiger are carnivorous, eating only meat.
• Others are insectivores, consuming only insects.
Because marsupials' body temperature and metabolic rates are lower than comparable placental mammals, they require less energy. As a result, they need less food to survive. They also require less water than comparably sized placental mammals.
How do Marsupials Move?
Photo Kangaroo - Bipedal Locomotion
Photo: Tasmanian Devil - Quadrupedal Locomotion
Marsupials use various forms of locomotion:
• Bipedal (two legs) hopping: Macropods, a group of marsupials that include kangaroos, wallabies, and bandicoots, use bipedal hopping as their mode of locomotion.
• Quadrupedal (four legs) walking: Wombats, Tasmanian devils walk on all four legs.
• Gliding Sugar gliders glide from tree to tree. But there are no flying marsupials.
• Burrowing: Marsupial moles and wombats burrow as well as walk on four legs.
Marsupial Sexual Anatomy and Reproduction
Photo: Marsupial Reproductive Anatomy
Photo: Placental Reproductive Anatomy
Male Marsupial
Most male marsupials such as the koala, have a bifurcated penis. That is, the penial shaft splits into two prongs at the end to enter the two separate lateral sexual vaginas of the female. However, macropods and the marsupial mole have a slender tapering single-shaft penis, which enters only one of the two lateral sexual vaginas of the female. Also, a marsupial's penis is located behind its scrotum. (Most animals have the penis located in front). When flaccid, the penis is withdrawn into the body.
Female Marsupial
The female marsupial has three vaginas and two uteruses (uteri). The two outermost vaginas are used for sperm transportation to its two uteruses. Babies are born through the middle vagina. By contrast, female placental mammals have only one uterus and one vagina. (See diagrams). With this unique reproductive system, some female marsupials, such as the kangaroo, can be in a continuous state of pregnancy, with a fertilised egg in one uterus waiting to be released, a baby growing in the second uterus, one in her pouch and another hopping outside but coming to its mother for milk.
Marsupial Birth Video
Baby Marsupial
The young marsupial, ranging in size from no larger than a grain of rice to about the size of a jelly-bean, soon emerges from the birth canal. Using its tiny forelimbs, the young joey crawls laboriously to its mother's fur to the pouch. Once inside its mother's pouch, the joey quickly attaches itself firmly to a nipple in the pouch.
Once it has attached itself to a nipple, the young joey will stay hidden until its starts to tentatively pop its head out of its mother's pouch and observe the world around it. Once it has gained enough confidence, it will venture outside.
This reproductive cycle is unlike placental mammals, which nourish their offspring for much longer through a placenta in the womb before giving birth to more developed young.
25 Fascinating Marsupial Facts
- Marsupial animals carry their babies in a pouch outside their bodies.
- They give birth to tiny underdeveloped babies and carry and nurse them in this pouch.
- There are only 330 species of marsupial.
- 75% of all marsupials in the world live in Australia. The rest live in the Americas.
- The word Marsupial (mar-sue-pee-al) comes from the Latin word “marsupium” which means pouch.
- Not all marsupials have pouches. A few have just a fold of skin.
- The smallest marsupial, the long-tailed planigale, weighing 4gm, as much as a teaspoon of sugar.
- The largest marsupial, the red kangaroo, is 2m tall and weighs 90kgs.
- Marsupials originated on a super-continent called Gondwana, which was made up of Australia, Antarctica and South America.
- This continent broke up millions of years ago, and Australia got isolated, and marsupials survived. They went mostly extinct elsewhere.
- There are no aquatic marsupials in Australia (There is one in South America).
- This is because a marsupial's pouch would get flooded, and the babies would drown.
- There are no flying marsupials.
- They have a body temperature about 3°C lower than placental mammals.
- Marsupials' basal metabolic rate is 30% lower than placental mammals.
- Because of their lower body temperature and metabolism, they are not found in very cold climates.
- Almost all marsupials are nocturnal.
- Marsupials, in general, have more teeth than placental mammals.
- They don't grow milk teeth.
- Female marsupials have three vaginas and two uteruses.
- Most male marsupials have a two-pronged penis.
- The gestation period for a marsupial is very short compared to placental mammals.
- A young marsupial, when its born, ranges in size from a grain of rice to the size of a jelly-bean.
- They crawl from the mother's birth canal into her pouch.
- Once it has attached itself to its mother's nipple, the baby will stay hidden for up to six months.
How Marsupials Migrated to Australia
It was once thought that marsupials originated in Australia. But recent fossil evidence and genetic research suggest that they may have originated in what is now modern-day China on the ancient landmass known as Pangaea (See map). About 200-180 million years ago, Pangaea broke into two continents. These were Laurasia with North America, Europe, China, and parts of Asia and Gondwana with South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India. Marsupials are believed to have arrived in Australia around 50 million years ago via North America, South America, and Antarctica.
When Australia separated from the other continents and started to drift southward, the marsupials stranded in Australia didn't have any competition from placental mammals. Without competition, the marsupials diverged into over 235 different species found in Australia today. Some descendants of those original marsupials even almost hopped back towards China, reaching as far as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
Unfortunately, the original marsupials in other parts of the world couldn't compete with placental mammals and became extinct, except for a few marsupials that still survive in North and South America.