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I work for a pest control company in Riverside County, California (southern California), and we catch Virginia opossums quite often. The "introduced range" on the map is in need of an update. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.47.149.61 ( talk) 02:39, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
Opossums (delphimorphia) are also common in San Francisco, California. The map, "Present day distribution of marsupials", needs to be updated to show the range of introduced Marsupials to California. -- NoahSpurrier ( talk) 16:29, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
Should we be using this for the Scientific classification tables or the Metatheria subclass? The Metatheria page seems to say that it is a more modern classification. The University of Michigan Museum of Biology uses Metatheria. I will not change it because I am not an animal scientist. -- PlatinumX 02:36, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
To me, I think use of the Metatheria makes sense, but I think the question should be posted to users before a change is made, so I'm adding an article where the poll can be taken. -- 216.228.163.41 01:01, 30 May 2004 (UTC)
Because we cannot see the mammalian glands which are in pouches, we tend to think marsupials are not mammals. Just goes to show, if you do not see it, that does not mean it does not exist. 121.209.56.25 ( talk) 06:38, 3 October 2014 (UTC)
Should we maybe use superorder instead of magnorder?-- Ingoolemo 01:09, 2004 Jun 6 (UTC)
I don't think this classification (McKenna & Bell's, apparently) is a good one. The Ameridelphia is probably paraphyletic. I think my own classification ( Mammal Taxonomy is better and the Metatheria and Marsupialia pages should be merged. Ucucha 14:28, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I tracked down your taxonomy via Archive.org. At least McKenna and Bell understood that shrews and bats aren't basal placentals. Sumanuil ( talk) 00:37, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
In the opening line of the article, it says that marsupials are characterized by a pouch. This is untrue. The true defining characteristic of a marsupial is that it gives birth to its offspring at a young, undeveloped age (prematurely). This is the biological taxonomically correct reason for their classification. 75.130.49.102 ( talk) 14:53, 17 May 2009 (UTC)
This article assumes that the reader knows that nipples are inside the pouch. It would be nice if this could be worded to make that more clear. And, along those same lines, I followed the Pouch link to see if it clarified this. Unfortunately, it gets redirected to Ileo-anal pouch. I'm not sure that should happen, but it is definately not related to this topic. But I enjoyed the page otherwise! :-) PerlKnitter 14:34, 11 August 2005 (UTC)
not all marsupials have true pouches. The article should mention this. References: http://www.arkive.org/brush-tailed-phascogale/phascogale-tapoatafa/ http://www.marsupialsociety.org.au/keeping-marsupials-dasyurids.html http://jeb.biologists.org/content/205/24/3775.full.pdf http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2012/07/12/meet-the-borhyaenoids-2012/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.33.245.149 ( talk) 05:18, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
There appear to be a few footnotes, but they aren't referenced at the bottom of the article. Shouldn't they be? Also, the author references "M.J. Spechtt" with respect to the Marsupials and Placentials evolving independently. That's an interesting fact, and I would love to read the reference. But if the reference is not well accepted, I'd like to know that. OrangeMarlin 19:31, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
The first part of the article says that there are between 260 and 280 species of marsupials, but in the second part of the article the sum of the numbers of species in the orders is 334!? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.131.10.241 ( talk • contribs) .
Since the subclass rank is already occupied by Theria, of which Marsupiala is a subdivision, Marsupiala should be an infraclass. The Theria page confirms this. Jerkov 13:06, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
I added marsupial frogs but UtherSRG removed them. Why? Are not marsupial frogs marsupial? Is convergent evolution a reason why marsupial frogs are not marsupial enough to appear on the marsupial page? -- SafeLibraries 17:45, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to see a little more about (or links to) the continental drift theories explaining why there are marsupials in Australia and South America but not in Africa. Were there marsupials in Antarctica, Madagasgar and India? I'd love to see a map showing the pre-drifted continents with a hypothetical "homeland" of the marsupials shaded in. User:bigfun 21:36, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
Marsupials did live in antartica. They had to pass through it to reach Australia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.166.82.187 ( talk) 21:06, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
The references used(Harrison1924) is incorrect, it is not a recognised source or a published paper that has gone through peer review. The age given in the article is also incorrect. Marsupial diversity originates in south america. despite the most prominent appearing in australia. According to biogeographic theory, the area of highest diversity is also the point of highest radiation of species to elsewhere on the planet. This is also backed up with the fact that the most primitive marsupials (which exhibit the most basic pouch structure) are also found in south america. the date 124 million years ago cannot then be used as an acceptable date, as south america had no contact (or ever has since pangaea) with china, and maintained geographic isolation since it left Gondwana (the southern supercontinent) AFTER 124mya. Other species left behind to colonise australia (since africa and india had already departed the supercontinent) and flee the ice sheets and the cold, were left to diversify in to the megafauna of australia. The fossil in china is merely the furthest extent of the "wallace line" A line drawn by biologist Alfred wallace to indicate the barrier, where australian/oceanean and eurasian species of plants and animals meet. While geological and radiological dating cannot lie, It could be surmised that this species is a relict taxa from before the split in the continents, A species which may have moved to south america. Or may have existed worldwide. The fossil record is unreliable as a source of absolutes. one this is not absolute, that the laurasian supercontinent is the homeland of the marsupial. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.33.208.212 ( talk • contribs)
"Marsupial success over placental mammals in Australia has been attributed to their comparatively low metabolic rate, a trait which would prove helpful given Australia's characteristic low fertility and aridity.[citation needed] " This needs to be looked at by an expert as Australia only became arid at the holocene around 10-14 thousand years ago - and at the stated time of their spread to Australia (50mya) Australia was I think quite heavily forested. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.100.70.222 ( talk) 21:51, 23 December 2010 (UTC)
this article is a bit thin, could saome one go into more detail? maybe list a few more marsupials? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 125.238.48.40 ( talk • contribs).
what makes Marsupial mammal in the family Macropodidae different to other animals —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.160.120.242 ( talk • contribs).
The speculation that marsupials may have reached Australia via south-east Asia is so absurd that it shouldn't even be raised in this article. Marsupials have existed in Australia long before Australia drifted anywhere near Asia. The assertion that marsupials co-exist with "primates, hoofed mammals and other placentals" in Indonesia is false, as it overlooks the fact that they are separated by the Wallace Line, a deep channel in the sea within Indonesia that has insured that the eastern part (east of Lombok Strait) has never been connected by a land bridge to the western part during periods of low sea level. Thus only a few flying mammals and rodents (which presumably caught a ride on floating logs) have managed to cross. -- 59.154.24.148 ( talk) 07:43, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
The opening paragraph suggests that the only major difference between marsupials and placentals is their respective reproductive systems. This is misleading. For one thing, marsupials and monotremes lack corpora callosa. Not sure where to mention this, as the opening paragraph of this article already seems a bit overlarge, but this is hardly enough data to justify a new section. 89.0.101.51 ( talk) 13:24, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
"The brain of the marsupials, like that of the monotremes, lacks a corpus callosum [...]"
The same paragraph also mentions dentition and cranial characteristics. WorldAsWill ( talk) 04:52, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
Marsupials have a cloaca that is connected to a urogenital sac in both sexes.
In what way is this sac urogenital? The text explains how it serves a role in waste removal, but has it got a genital role as well? Shinobu ( talk) 22:40, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
The distinction between a placental mammal and a marsupial one is soft tissue which wouldn't normally be fossilized. I presume there are female pelvic differences that are taken as evidence. Whatever the method it should be made clear. 72.228.150.44 ( talk) 21:41, 29 December 2008 (UTC)
The Joey (marsupial) article is proposed for merging into this one.
If this were to go ahead, please amend Kangaroo accordingly. Earthlyreason ( talk) 15:29, 7 February 2009 (UTC)
The page is incorrect, or at least vague, about the details of the marsupial reproductive system. Here's the problematic statement:
"Females have two vaginas, both of which open externally through one orifice but lead to different compartments within the uterus."
Most sources describe marsupials as having two lateral vaginas (for mating), along with a median vagina (for birth). The latter can be transitory or permanent. (One of the documents the page refers to the median vagina as a "pseudovaginal canal", which I haven't seen anywhere else.) The two lateral vaginas open into two uteruses, or a "double-horned (bicornuate) uterus". Walker's Mammals of the World goes into some detail in chapter 1. MacDonald's Encyclopedia of Mammals is much briefer, but mentions the "double-horned (bicornuate) uterus". There are some illustrations of the internal reproductive organs in Stephen Jackson's Koala: Origins of an Icon. WorldAsWill ( talk) 04:52, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
can someone check the petrosal link is right pls, there was no link from it before and most people won't know what it means, Tom B ( talk) 20:39, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
http://www.biologia.ufrj.br/labs/labvert/Artigos/GEB13_439.pdf Andrew Colvin • Talk 21:58, 22 June 2010 (UTC)
The maps that were just added to the article are helpful, but there are a couple of problems. In File:Marsupial_biogeography_present_day_-_dymaxion_map.png, the introduced range of marsupials in New Zealand and on the U.S. West Coast is colored. I wouldn't do that, especially for a map where the focus is on biogeography. On the other hand, the map is missing the indigenous distribution of marsupials on Sulawesi, the Vogelkop peninsula, and New Britain, and (if introduced distributions are to be included) the feral populations of red-necked wallabies in the UK. I was also surprised to see the range of the Virginia opossum extending all the way north to the Hudson Bay.
File:Marsupial-biogeography-animation-map.gif is completely wrong, and I have removed it from the article for the present. There are, in fact, no known unambiguous records of marsupials from the southern continents during the Mesozoic ( UA 8699 is one disputed record). The map starts at 170 MA, whereas the oldest known metatherian (not even marsupial) is Sinodelphys at 125 MA. Marsupials occurred commonly in Laurasia during the Cretaceous and survived in Europe (for example) into the Miocene; all that is missing from the map, which only shows them occurring on Gondwana. Ucucha 05:35, 23 June 2010 (UTC)
According to the article, "In Australia, marsupials displaced any placental mammals entirely, and have since dominated the Australian ecosystem." The source is The Ancestor's Tale, by Richard Dawkins. I asked the good folks at http://www.askabiologist.org.uk/answers/viewtopic.php?id=5165 about this and someone said that nothing to this effect was in the book. Can anyone verify or refute this? Zhoulikan ( talk) 03:52, 9 December 2010 (UTC)Luke
Bats are a bad example, since they fly and thus don't come into direct competition with any marsupials. Zhoulikan ( talk) 08:41, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
Could that be added? Will ( Talk - contribs) 11:02, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
The introduction mentions that there is one species of marsupial in North America -- but the Virginia Opossum seems to always be mentioned as the only North American marsupial "north of Mexico." Are there other species in Mexico? Since it is part of North America, the "one species" phrasing should probably be changed/clarified. - Tim D ( talk) 18:44, 3 June 2011 (UTC)
Since no one in the modern age suggests that marsupials in Sulawesi are relicts of an ancient expansion from China, rather than a fairly recent expansion from Sahul (Ice Age Australia with New Guinea), I've deleted the text "a few species of marsupials presently living in Indonesia as far west as Sulawesi, which is sometimes considered to be in an Asian ecozone, with its citation to Harrison, L., The Migration Route of the Australian Marsupial Fauna, Australian Zoologist, Volume 3, Pages 247-263, 1924 which was added in 2010. The statement " Modern marsupials appear to have reached the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi relatively recently via Australia." is supported by the Dawkins reference.-- Wetman ( talk) 15:59, 7 August 2012 (UTC)
Could someone who knows the details please replace the jelly bean statement with actual measurements? Sadly, jelly beans are no longer a standard size, there are giant ones and miniatures available. Sminthopsis84 ( talk) 23:50, 27 October 2012 (UTC)
Please put the etymology in (early on) in the article. It serves as a quick definition. Marsupium - pouch. Done. 71.139.166.154 ( talk) 17:11, 31 July 2013 (UTC)
Can someone provide a citation to verify the removal of Sparassodonta from Marsupialia? Ideally the first study that formally proposed the split (see Talk:Sparassodonta)- I don't doubt that it has occurred, but this fairly drastic taxonomic change needs verifiable documentation. Animalparty ( talk) 20:22, 20 October 2013 (UTC)
Multiple statements need citations in this article suck as the Jelly bean statement in reference to the size of a newborn marsupial. Also the statement "except for the largest species of kangaroo; the eastern grey and red kangaroos" in reference to the male reproductive system. Secondly, Citations 9 and 16 are BBC news articles which does not serve as a reliable source for scientific material. Should insert a primary research article that has been peer reviewed.
Multiple sentences should be edited or rearranged so they are more understandable. For example: "Most morphological evidence comparing traits such as number and arrangement of teeth and structure of the reproductive and waste elimination systems favors a closer evolutionary relationship between marsupials and placental mammals than either with the monotremes, as does most genetic and molecular evidence" Edited: "Most morphological, genetic, and molecular evidence comparing traits such as number and arrangement of teeth, structure of the reproductive, and waste elimination systems favors a closer evolutionary relationship between marsupials and placental mammals than either with the monotremes."
We read in the article: “A new hypothesis suggests that South American microbiotheres resulted from a back-dispersal from eastern Gondwana due to new cranial and post-cranial marsupial fossils from the Djarthia murgonensis from the early Eocene Tingamarra Local Fauna in Australia that indicate the Djarthia murgonensis is the most plesiomorphic, the oldest unequivocal australidelphian, and may be the ancestral morphotype of the Australian marsupial radiation”. Is it really a new hypothesis?
But this hypothesis is from 2008, so it is OLDER than the one (based on genetics, 2010) claiming that the microbiotheres are American autochthons and Djarthia is a result of the South America --> Antarctis --> Australia migration.
Anyway, the citing the two contradicting views in the article needs some clarification.
31.11.242.188 ( talk) 12:09, 15 September 2015 (UTC)
Per recent edits and reverts by myself, Materialscientist and Chaoyangopterus, I believe we should currently give little or no mention of the non-peer-reviewed hypothesis that suggests some marsupials were dryolestoids, as it gives undue weight per WP:UNDUE and WP:BALASPS. There is an ongoing discussion at Talk:Marsupial mole#On supposed dryolestoid affinitiy, which may affect this and articles on marsupial, dryolestoids, and extinct mammals. In the aims of centralizing discussion, interested editors may want to comment there. All the best --Animalparty! ( talk) 00:07, 16 October 2015 (UTC)
Citation 45 gives a title of "Why are There Fewer Marsupials than Placentals?" and also specifies "December 2013, Volume 20, Issue 4" and page numbers, but doesn't identify the journal. 73.53.61.168 ( talk) 13:53, 13 November 2015 (UTC)
@ Dunkleosteus77: In your recent addition to this article, several grammatical errors were introduced in the automatic translation from German to English. Can anyone help us to correct these errors? Jarble ( talk) 21:36, 1 August 2016 (UTC)
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Regarding teeth - what does "pine half" mean? -- Richardson mcphillips ( talk) 15:17, 25 October 2017 (UTC)
Okay, so is it safe to call newborn marsupials larvae? Sarsath3 ( talk) 00:34, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
The main image in the introduction to the article depicts a Virginia Opossum hanging from a tree branch by the tail. Although opossums are often depicted in artwork as hanging by their tail, actual opossums are physically incapable of doing so. It would appear that this photograph is not a live opossum, but is some sort of taxidermy. The image should really be updated to avoid being misleading and perpetuating the false belief that opossums actually hang by their tails. This false belief often results in people picking up opossums by their tails and causing serious injury. Can someone please switch out the image with a biologically accurate one, perhaps with the lede image from the article for Virginia Opossum? Vontheri ( talk) 23:25, 31 December 2019 (UTC)
You know what would be nice? A section that mentioned the habitat of marsupials. Why isn't that a thing? Monkeytheboy ( talk) 05:41, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
@ Apokryltaros: There are only two nation-states "north of Mexico". Why do you keep reverting edits removing this asinine phrasing? 24.235.57.197 ( talk) 18:12, 18 January 2021 (UTC)
If joeys are born with one each, it would be better to say "A joey is born with an oral shield". The plural "Joeys are born with oral shields" would be ambiguous. Now, the quotation marks seem to indicate that this is a specialized term, or an obscure one, and so it is! So why not explain it? The article it is linked to says "An extensively developed oral shield was observed in the northern quoll. The upper and lower lips formed together with the rhinarium, a flattened ring structure that surrounds the buccal opening. The pair of naris appeared like two big holes." One can draw an inference from this, but a clear definition would defs help. -- 142.163.194.36 ( talk) 00:55, 13 April 2022 (UTC)
This editor continues to make unconstructive edits without justification or comment in two areas.
The first area is in the cladogram where the editor keeps changing it to a form inconsistent with the reference supplied.
The second is to add in an unjustified claim that macropods are biologically similar to rodents. A reference is supplied, but it is bogus (having previously discussed this with the editor when he/she was using a different address). Previous addresses include 193.119.116.137 and 124.168.229.4 from which he/she was blocked for a period. The reference given namely "Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Volume 27, page 382, By Joel Asaph Allen" does not discuss anything of relevance on that page, it was not written by Allen, and Allen never contributed to that volume. See [3] for a copy of that volume and page.
I am reverting once more, after that I will have to report this editor. Jameel the Saluki ( talk) 10:56, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
"In 1816, French zoologist George Cuvier classified all marsupials under the order Marsupialia."
When one refers to the primary source (Le regne animal ... of 1816), Cuvier treats marsupials as a family rather than an order, within an order "les Carnassiers", including bats, insectivores, carnivores and marsupials (les Marsupiaux), so on first sight both the rank and name are incorrect.
I'd guess that we'd want to include the first use of the name Marsupialia (Illiger (1811) - already in the article), the first use of the rank of order for the clade, and the first recognition of the clade as a sister group to Placentalia/Eutheria (Huxley 1880, as Metatheria?) Lavateraguy ( talk) 14:33, 24 January 2024 (UTC)
Prototheria indicates that the 3-fold monotreme/marsupial/placental split predates Huxley. Lavateraguy ( talk) 14:48, 24 January 2024 (UTC)
Waterhouse (1846) may give enough detail to locate the answers to the questions above. Lavateraguy ( talk) 16:26, 24 January 2024 (UTC)
This article is currently the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 9 January 2024 and 3 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mariahlynae ( article contribs). Peer reviewers: ADeng102, Sdwelbornz, RJB379, Bigboyjosh45$, K3tur8h.
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