marsupial
dr. dolittle | September 13, 2017
Image of a tammar wallaby and her joey By Mathae - Own work via Wikimedia Commons
When I think of marsupials, what comes to mind is an image of a mother carrying her young (joey) in a pouch. Contrary to popular belief, however, mother tammar wallabies (Macropus eugenii) have an internal functioning placenta. Albeit, it only develops near the end of their short pregnancy (a mere 26.5 days), just before the developing offspring moves from the uterus to the pouch for further development and nursing. A new study published in eLife examined gene expression in both the placenta and…
laelaps | April 11, 2010
If you're going to have termites for lunch, you'll need the right kind of equipment. From The Life of Mammals.
zooillogix | March 12, 2009Zooillogix friend Tweet sent us along yet more cool ring tail possum pictures from Crocodile Dundee land. Here is one with a 10-14 day old baby.
bleimanb | June 24, 2008Scientists have solved a timeless question that has divided Andrew and myself, more than once leading us to come to blows...And as it turns out, only one species of giant wombat roamed the planet between 2 million and 10,000 years ago, despite evidence that they varied significantly in size. Boo hoo, Andrew. You lose again!
Majestic, weren't they?
A study by Gilbert Price in the last issue of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society , focused on tooth specimens of the giant wombats (the largest ever marsupials to reign on Earth). After comparing over...
...a thousand teeth, Price…
bleimanb | May 1, 2008I met Chris Green on a boat in Lake Titicaca in September, 2007. Immediately we realized that we had something in common...Weird animals, well kinda. For starters, I just write about weird animals, and Chris actually works with them. Also because he lives on Tasmania, he doesn't really consider the animals he works with weird; they are pretty much the most normal animals he can think of...Whoa, that's deep.
Normal day at the office...
If Andrew and I were trying to make a joke about a typical Tasmanian person, we'd probably use Chris' resume as material. He has spent the last few years at a…
zooillogix | January 2, 2008Apparently obesity isn't just for American's anymore... make that humans in general. First we have George, the greedy little pig as old British women would call him. This hedgehog was delivered to the Wildlife Aid centre in Leatherhead, England five times heavier than his natural weight. At 5lbs, George is dangerously obese and a testament to the fattening properties of garden insects, fruits and mushrooms.
Remind anyone else of this?
More of a trailer park tiggywinkle if you ask me.
Next we have Peaches, the fat baby wombat, from Tomerong, north of Sydney. In this series of caught-in-the-…
bleimanb | November 27, 2007The Australian Rugby team, Western Force 14, is facing serious accusations, possible fines and an eternity being molested by demons in the darkest pits of hell after a recent "bonding" trip to Rottnest Island, a small island off the Western coast of Australia. The players are accused of tormenting and torturing countless small, endangered marsupials called quokkas, native only Western Australia and the islands off the southwest of the continent.
Why do you persecute me?
According to a witness--Sydney resident, Dan Andrews--the players pursued, trapped, grabbed and even "hammer tossed" the…
zooillogix | May 21, 2007The Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial and lived in Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. Known as both the Tasmanian Tiger and Tasmanian Wolf, it is believed that thylacines were hunted to extinction in the 20th century. Although sightings are still reported, scientists are skeptical because, for the most part, people are idiots. Sharing a startling degree of physiological adaptations with canines and markings similar to tigers, the thylacine is an often-cited example of convergent evolution. It's closest living relative is the Tasmanian Devil, which, sadly, has also seen…