Marsupials

Marsupials are pouched mammals. Their young are born in an immature state after a relatively short developmental period in the mother's uterus. (This is called the gestation period.) The newborn marsupial crawls into a pouch or onto a pouch-like area on the mother's abdomen. Here it attaches itself to one of her nipples and remains until it is well formed and has grown much larger. There are some 250 kinds of living marsupials. These include the …

…their habitat, for example, tree-kangaroos or rock-wallabies. In most kangaroos, the forelimbs are short and are used for manipulating food and scratching. Tree-kangaroos have forelimbs that are slightly longer as an adaptation for climbing. All kangaroos have a highly developed fourth digit on their hindfoot which has a long pad and a strong claw. Hindlimbs also have syndactylous toes that are used for grooming in much the same way as possums and koalas use theirs.