RISE OF THE MARSUPIALS
Australia is no stranger to the weirder side of evolution, with the likes of patchwork platypuses and egg-laying, hedgehog-like echidnas roaming the land. However, it has also become the home of one particular group of mammals: marsupials.
Found hidden beneath the ground, hopping through grasslands or hanging among treetops, Australia hosts a majority of Earth's marsupials. Around 250 species of these pouch-bearing parents live throughout the southern continent – that's more than anywhere else in the world. There are 120 species in South America and only one species, the Virginia opossum, is found in North America. This abundance has led some to believe that marsupials first evolved in Australia. However, that is not the case. It took millions upon millions of years for marsupials to make their way over to
