Random Fascinating Facts You Probably Never Learned About Marsupials (25 items)

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  (#1) Kangaroo

  • Animal

  Female kangaroos have two vaginas for sperm and one for the joey, which climbs out of that vagina after it is born and makes its way up the mother's body to the pouch, where it chills on a nipple until it is fully developed.
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  (#24) Marsupial lion

  The long-extinct marsupial "lion" used to be the biggest meat-eating mammal in Australia, measuring 59 inches head-to-tail and 30 inches high at the shoulder. It used a huge slicing cheek tooth and a large incisor to devour its prey, all while still sporting (for the females, at least) a baby-carrying pouch that has long been the mark of a marsupial.
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  (#22) Diprotodon Was The Largest Marsupial Ever

  The largest-ever marsupial was the mammoth diprotodon. How big was it? Its jawbone alone was a foot long and its pouch was large enough to carry a human!
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  (#20) Monito del Monte

  • Organism Classification

  Scientists call the adorable South American marsupial monito del monte ("Monkey of the Mountains") a "living fossil" because it is the only living member of the Microbiotheria order, an otherwise extinct species.
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  (#16) Sugar Glider

  • Organism Classification

  A male sugar glider rubs its bald spot - which is actually a scent gland - against other sugar gliders to mark its territory.
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  (#15) Antechinus

  • Organism Classification

  The tiny marsupial antechinus only gets to have sex once before it dies. It's a pretty rough way to go, too: they get gangrene and develop ulcerations before they pass on.

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