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Marsupial
Marsupials are mammals in which the female typically has a pouch in which it rears its young through early infancy. They differ from placental mammals (Placentalia) in their reproductive traits. The early birth of marsupials removes the developing young much sooner than in placental mammals, and marsupials have not needed to develop a complex placenta to protect the young from its mother's immune system. Early birth places the tiny newborn marsupial at greater risk, but significantly reduces the risks associated with pregnancy, as there is no need to carry a large fetus to full-term in bad seasons. There are about 334 species of marsupials, over 200 of them native to Australia and nearby islands to the north.
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Plants & Animals News
February 21, 2026
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Feb. 12, 2026 A new scientific review challenges the headline-grabbing claim that Yellowstone’s returning wolves triggered one of the strongest trophic cascades on Earth. Researchers found that the reported 1,500% surge in willow growth was based on circular ...
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Feb. 10, 2026 Life’s story may stretch further back than scientists once thought. Some genes found in nearly every organism today were already duplicated before all life shared a common ancestor. By tracking these rare genes, researchers can investigate how ...
Feb. 9, 2026 Forests around the world are quietly transforming, and not for the better. A massive global analysis of more than 31,000 tree species reveals that forests are becoming more uniform, increasingly dominated by fast-growing “sprinter” trees, while ...
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Latest Headlines
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Feb. 20, 2026 For decades, scientists have believed that complex life began when two very different microbes joined forces, eventually giving rise to plants, animals, and fungi. But one major puzzle remained: how ...
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Feb. 19, 2026 A major breakthrough could help save the world’s bananas from a devastating disease. Scientists have discovered the exact genetic region in a wild banana that provides resistance to Fusarium wilt ...
Feb. 18, 2026 Scientists have developed a powerful new way to forecast where some of the world’s most dangerous scorpions are likely to be found. By combining fieldwork in Africa with advanced computer modeling, ...
Feb. 18, 2026 Life on Earth may have learned to breathe oxygen long before oxygen filled the skies. MIT researchers traced a key oxygen-processing enzyme back ...
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