| Although marsupial mammals once populated all land masses, they remain diversified only on the isolated Australian continent, where they have evolved to fill the same ecological niches that placental mammals occupy elsewhere. The Tasmanian wolf, for example, closely resembles the doglike carnivores of other continents. More specialized parallel adaptations include those of the marsupial and placental anteaters, the marsupial sugar glider and placental flying squirrels, and the burrowing marsupial wombat and placental ground hog. In this illustration, placental mammals are in the top row, and their marsupial equivalents are in the bottom row. |
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