Marsupial

Marsupial merupakan satu infrakelas mamalia yang bercirikan anggota badan kantung (marsupium) yang digunakan oleh haiwan betina untuk mengangkut anaknya.

Taksonomi
Dari segi taksonomi, Marsupialia terdiri daripada dua cabang utama: iaitu marsupial Amerika dan marsupial Australia. Order Microbiotheria (yang cuma ada satu spesies, iaitu monito del monte) ditemui di Amerika Selatan tetapi dipercayai lebih erat persaudaraannya dengan marsupial Australia. Terdapat banyak spesies arboreal kecil dalam setiap kumpulan. Untuk membezakan spesies-spesies Amerika Utara dan Australia yang kedua-duanya dikenali sebagai "posum", spesies Amerika Utara sewajarnya dipanggil oposum manakala spesies Australia digelar posum.

Superorder Ameridelphia
 Order Didelphimorphia (93 spesies)
 Famili Didelphidae: oposum
 Order Paucituberculata (6 spesies)
 Famili Caenolestidae: oposum kesturi
Superorder Australidelphia
 Order †Yalkaparidontia
 Order Microbiotheria (1 spesies)
 Famili Microbiotheriidae: monito del monte
 Order Dasyuromorphia (71 spesies)
 Famili †Thylacinidae: tilasin
 Famili Dasyuridae: antechinus, quoll, dunnart, momok Tasmania, dan saudara-maranya
 Famili Myrmecobiidae: numbat
 Order Peramelemorphia (24 spesies)
 Famili Thylacomyidae: bilby
 Famili †Chaeropodidae: kusu tanah kaki babi
 Famili Peramelidae: kusu tanah dan sekutunya
 Order Notoryctemorphia (2 spesies)
 Famili Notoryctidae: mondok marsupial
 Order Diprotodontia (137 spesies)
 Famili Phascolarctidae: koala
 Famili Vombatidae: wombat
 Famili †Diprotodontidae: diprotodon
 Famili Phalangeridae: posum ekor berus dan kuskus
 Famili Burramyidae: posum pigmi
 Famili Tarsipedidae: posum madu
 Famili Petauridae: posum belang, posum jambul merah, yellow-bellied glider, sugar glider, mahogany glider, squirrel glider
 Family Pseudocheiridae: posum ekor gelang dan saudara-mara
 Family Potoridae: potoroo, kanggaru tikus, bettong
 Family Acrobatidae: feathertail glider dan posum ekor bulu pelepah
 Family Hypsiprymnodontidae: kanggaru tikus kesturi
 Family Macropodidae: kanggaru, walabi dan saudara-mara
 Family †Thylacoleonidae: singa marsupial
 Order †Sparassodonta

† menandakan kepupusan

Lihat juga
 Metatheria

Rujukan

 Tim Flannery (1994),The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People, pages 67–75. ISBN 0-8021-3943-4 ISBN 0-7301-0422-2 
  Tim Flannery, Country: a continent, a scientist & a kangaroo, pages 196–200. ISBN 1-920885-76-5
 Austin, C.R. ed. Reproduction in Mammals. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press,1982.
 Bronson, F. H. Mammalian Reproductive Biology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
 Dawson, Terrence J. Kangaroos: Biology of Largest Marsupials. New York: Cornell University Press, 1995.
 Frith, H. J. and J. H. Calaby. Kangaroos. New York: Humanities Press, 1969.
 Gould, Edwin and George McKay. Encyclopedia of Mammals. San Diego: Academic Press, 1998.
 Hunsaker, Don. The Biology of Marsupials. New York: Academic Press, 1977.
 Johnson, Martin H. and Barry J. Everitt. Essential Reproduction. Boston: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1984. 
 Knobill, Ernst and Jimmy D. Neill ed. Encyclopedia of Reproduction. V. 3 New York: Academic Press, 1998
 McCullough, Dale R. and Yvette McCullough. Kangaroos in Outback Australia: Comparative Ecology and Behavior of Three Coexisting Species. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
 Taylor, Andrea C. and Paul Sunnucks. Sex of Pouch Young Related to Maternal Weight in Macropus eugeni and M. parma. Australian Journal of Zoology 1997 V. 45 pp. 573–578

Pautan luar

The Marsupial Ring
Western Australian Mammal Species
Researchers Publish First Marsupial Genome Sequence The National Institutes of Health May 2007
First marsupial genome released. Most differences between the opossom and placental mammals stem from non-coding DNA