marsupial

Another example can be seen among the marsupial mammals of Australia, an island where animal evolution diverged from the rest of the world far back in evolutionary time, we see creatures with eerie parallels to mammals from other continents, creatures that occupy the same ecological niche or role and have evolved similar body shapes or abilities to cope.

In recent years, scientists have aimed to clone the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine, an extinct marsupial.

The reverse trek was made by four different kinds of ground sloths, oversized armadillos, terror birds, capybaras and even a marsupial.

"It may have been at least as diverse as the later Australian marsupial fauna... but I would need more evidence," Flinders University palaeontologist Rod Wells told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Every species in the marsupial community, moreover, demonstrated the same pattern, being roughly twice as likely to flee from humans as the next most frightening predator, which in each case was dogs, and all were most vigilant to humans.