Page 76 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

76 ATLAS OF THE WORLD’S STRANGEST ANIMALS

Baby koalas spend the first 24–28 weeks of life inside their Koalas pouches open downwards,which enables the growing
mother’s pouch, feeding on the milk she provides. baby to take in additional food from a very unusual source.

They eat predigested food in the form of soft droppings! Once the baby has developed a tolerance to eucalypt leaves, it
These contain the bacteria necessary to digest eucalypt leaves. can begin to feed for itself.This happens at about seven months.

They’re cute, cuddly and covered in soft fur, but, while limbless. Development continues in the pouch, which can
these delightfully dozy animals may look like teddies, almost be considered as an external womb.
the name ‘koala bear’ is a real misnomer. Koalas aren’t It used to be believed that marsupials were an earlier, less
bears at all. sophisticated type of mammal, but it’s now thought that
Bears belong to the scientific family group Ursidae,but both branches of the mammal family tree developed
koalas are part of the Phascolarctidae family. In fact, they’re independently at around same time, during the end of the
the only living member of this group. Koalas are also Mesozoic era.The earliest known marsupial is Sinodelphys
marsupials while bears are placental mammals. In szalayi, which lived in China around 125 million years
mammals, the unborn young grow inside their mother’s ago.This is the same age as the earliest known placental
body, where they are supplied with nutrients and oxygen mammal. It also confirms the long-held assumption that
by an organ called a placenta. It’s only once the young are marsupials originated in south-east Asia and, indeed, some
fully formed that they’re born. Marsupials take a different still live in this region. However, the ancestors of today’s
approach.Their young are born at an extremely immature Australian marsupials had an incredible journey to reach
stage of development, when they are tiny, blind and almost the continent.They began by heading west, into North

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.