Marsupial

A mammal whose young are born at an early stage of development and usually complete growth attached to a teat, often inside a pouch.

Mammal: A vertebrate animal whose females produce milk for their young and whose body is usually covered with hair. Marsupials are one branch of the mammal lineage.
Marsupial reproduction: The reproductive pattern in which a brief pregnancy is followed by prolonged nursing of highly undeveloped young. It describes the characteristic sequence linking birth and postnatal development.
Kangaroo: A large herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, adapted for powerful hopping locomotion. Its pouch carries a joey through much of its early growth.
Gondwana: An ancient southern supercontinent that included present-day South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India. Its breakup shaped the geographic history of several marsupial lineages.
Placenta: An organ that transfers nutrients, gases, and wastes between a developing fetus and its mother. Marsupials generally rely less on prolonged placental support than placental mammals.
Placental mammal: A mammal whose embryo develops with substantial support from a placenta before birth. Its longer prenatal development contrasts with the typical marsupial pattern.
Marsupium: A pouch or pouch-like fold of skin in some marsupials that shelters developing young. It can protect young while they remain attached to a teat.
Koala: An arboreal Australian marsupial that feeds mainly on eucalyptus leaves. Its young develop in a pouch before riding on the mother’s back.
Marsupial evolution: The evolutionary history of marsupials and their extinct relatives. It traces the lineage behind the distinctive reproductive pattern.
Eutheria: The mammalian clade containing placental mammals and their extinct relatives. Its reproductive history contrasts with the metatherian lineage of marsupials.

Linked from 48 pages