what is unique about marsupials
When Australia separated from the ancient super-continent, many marsupial species got isolated on Australia, and then diversified into many more species that fill a variety of ecological niches. As a result, there are more species of marsupials in Australia than anywhere else in the world-- about 144 species (Bennett, 2000). Marsupials are mammals: they have fur, bear live young rather than laying eggs, feed their young with mother's milk from a nipple, and show quite a bit of parental care --sometimes for longer than a year. What makes marsupials unique among mammals is the female's pouch where the young finish their development after birth. A young marsupial is born after only a few weeks as an embryo. It may be less than one centimeter in length and very helpless. It has large front paws that it uses to climb through the mother's fur to reach the pouch.