Billy Knapp. age 12.. of Bridgeportp Conn
What is a marsupial?
One kind of marsupial enjoys life right here in America. He is the shy and not too handsome opossum This little animal goes through life so afraid that he faints whenever he feels threatened. Sometimes this saves his lifer for his fresh meat eating enemies walk away thinking he is dead.
Mama opossum carries her newborn babies in a furry pouch. That is how come the opossum claims kinship with the marsupial animals. For the word marsupial is coined from a Latin word meaning pouch. All opossums are born very small and very helpless. They must spend weeks growing in Mama’s pouch or clutching in her furry coat..
There was a time when all sorts of marsupials roamed the world over. This was millions of years ago.. when the lumbering dinosaurs were in their heyday. The dinosaurs perished and other animals with teeth and claws x developed. These new sturdy hunters preyed on the more helpless marsupials. Also the animals who could carry their babies longer inside their bodies had a better chance of surviving. So, in most of the world the pouched animals lost out in the fight to live.
It is believed that long.. long ago Australia was close to the vast land mass of Asia and Europe. Millions of years in the past it separated and drifted across the southern hemispheres taking New Guineas Tasmania and other islands along with it. Naturally.. the moving land mass. also took along its own plants and animals. And the animals were almost all of them at the marsupial stage of development.
Except for the opossums all the world’s marsupials nowadays are natives of Australia and nearby Pacific islands. The toothed and taloned animals failed to develop in these areas. The marsupials were loft in peace protected from the rest of the world by the surrounding seas.
There are marsupials of all sorts and sizes„ Some are very like our animals$ though they_are not related. There is a ‑marsupial like a mole and one like a mouse. There is a tunnel builder called a wombat who looks like a chubby little bear. One called the bandicoot looks and acts rather like a badger. The darling little koala bear is a marsupial. The flying phalangers or flying squirrel of Australia owns the most glamorous fur coat of the marsupials.
The giant marsupials are the kangaroos. Their smaller cousins are the wallabys. Old Man Kangaroo can grow seven feet tall and weigh 200 pounds.. yet when he was born he was no bigger than an inch or two.. bare helpless and blind. Young Joey. as the baby is called$ stays hidden in that fur‑lined pouch for the first few months of his life. He feeds on Mama’s milk and grows until he is big enough to peep out at the big and wonderful world.
Soon he reaches out a paw to grab a leaf from a bush as Mama dines. Later he tries his strong back legs and goes for a hop by himself. But until he is quite sizable.. he will pop back into his furry cradle at the first sign of trouble.