How Did the Marsupial Get Their Pouch?
There is something adorable about a kangaroo joey sticking their head out of the pouch. I remember visiting a zoo where we were able to walk through the kangaroo pen. It was raining.
A joey hopped out of its mother’s pouch and decided to explore the world. Well, mom, being smart, was in their rain shelter.
The joey hopped out of the shelter, stopped dead, looked up, and dived back all the way into the pouch with such force they rocked mommy back on her tail. I swear she rolled her eyes.
So, why did marsupials take such a different evolutionary course from placental mammals like us?
How did they get those pouches?
All The Different Pouches
First of all, the pouch, which is correctly called the “marsupium” (just as a womb is technically a “uterus”) is not the same across the wide variety of marsupials.
Some marsupials have pouches that face backwards, such as wombats. They burrow and don’t want to throw dirt on the baby.
Opossums have a pouch that’s a slit down the center of their body.