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All know pouched mammal - such as brush kangaroo , kangaroo and opossums - all originated in South America , a new genetic written report indicate .
Yep – the brute most famous for populating Australia actually started out on another continent altogether . Butmarsupials – a group of mammals make love for add their young in venter pouches on the females – are still common in South America , too .
A pair of Kangaroos cavort. Marsupials like these, once thought to originate in Australia, may actually have come from South America.
The late bailiwick used new genetic datum about some of these coinage to draw the fellowship Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
" The two recently sequenced marsupial genome of the South American possum ( Monodelphis domestica ) and a kangaroo , the Australian tammar brush kangaroo ( Macropus eugenii ) , provide a unique opportunity to apply a completely new plan of attack to decide marsupial relationships , " the investigator , lead by Maria A. Nilsson of Germany ’s University of Munster , wrote in a paper published July 27 in the journal PLoS Biology .
The South American opossum ( unremarkably call simply " opossum " ) face like a heavy , furred mouse . Meanwhile , the Australian tammar brush kangaroo is a modest member of the kangaroo kinfolk that hops around on two wooden leg .
The scientists analyzed genes from these coinage for special genetic marker called retroposons that can reveal how much the two genomes share in common . They found that these animals – and all living members of the marsupial family – must have uprise from one branch of mammals , because they all partake limited retroposon rule that no other mammalian have .
The results suggest marsupials started out from a common ancestor in South America , and one major branching - off took place long ago when South America , Antarctica and Australia were all link to each other as part of alarge land mass call Gondwana . This fork would have allowed the animals to populate Australia .
This determination goes against previous ideas that marsupialsoriginated in Australia . Under this scenario , some chemical group of pouched mammal would have break off when the landmass of South America , Antarctica and Australia rive around 80 million years ago . The situation is complicated by a deficiency of unassailable fogey grounds of this group from ancient times .
Originally print onLive Science .
