The Weird Origins of Marsupials

Marsupials are one of the three major groups of Mammals alive today, alongside Monotremes and Placentals. How did they evolve into the recognizable forms seen today like Kangaroos, Koalas and Possums? What did their ancestors look like? In this video; we explore these questions!

Thumbnail Art: WillemSvdMerwe

Music:

*If any artwork used in the video has not been properly credited, please let me know in the comments so I can correct it with a pinned comment!

[maxleroux]

If you think marsupials are weird, did you know there was once a fourth group of mammals called Multituberculates? These extinct mammals have very small, helpless babies like marsupials do, but they don't have a pouch. I guess that didn't work out so great for them, since they lost their niche to the placentals before the end of the Paleocene epoch.

[Jaggerbush]

Great channel. A real person! Narrating his own videos and not a predicable AI voiceover. I just became a subscriber - great work.

[thegreatprimevalshow]

Can confirm that I learnt something from this video:

I always assumed Placentals evolved from Marsupials who in turn had evolved from Monotremes since they seem more primitive.
But no, they all evolved mostly separate.

[gattycroc]

man, Metatheria is definitely a fascinating group of mammals and I hope the more obscures members get more attention in the future like the Polydolopimorphs.

[AncientRealms]

Always great to get another video from this channel, great stuff. Marsupials are generally very weird and it's cool to get some more information about them. The Thylacine is perhaps the most enigmatic of them all, but hopefully they can all steer clear of any future bird interactions.

[greenghoul]

Marsupials growing their babies in their pouch is pretty neat

[christophermartinez]

Love how you made reference to Hodari Nundu's paleo art in the video. I've seen his artwork on Deviantart and loved every one of his pictures, including his "Diving with" artwork.

[CJ-BZ]

my favorite will always be the thylacine. Beautiful animal. Its extinction is a stain on humanity

[Ashe-exbs]

this was a sick video man can’t wait for more marsupial content!

[UdinJibral]

Don't forget the Eutriconodont the close relative of Marsupial becoming the greatest group of mammals ever existed and also the most successful in the age of the dinosaurs

[Fede_]

4:25 I don't think we know if Argentoconodon was a gliding mammal but btw that reconstruction is not a good reference just like all the others illustration of mesozoic mammals portrayed as bat like animals. They were made by paleoartists I really like but were commissioned by a guy who has his own weird ideas without proofs, kinda like the infamous David Peters

[SleepyKyju]

I swerved to avoid an opossum in the road last week and it tried to move out of the way... to the same spot I tried to move. I hit it. I felt so bad. I repressed that memory until right now, thank you.

[erichtomanek]

I look forward to scientists and researchers to find lots more fossils of any mammal in Antarctica.
Their paradise became a frozen nightmare.

[KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

22:33 - Great video! Map Note - Virginia Opossums are _not native_ West of the Rocky Mountains.
They were first brought, for example, to Oregon by Southerners who brought their pets with them after WWII broke out.
(Hundreds of thousands of workers were hired for the Henry Kaiser Liberty Shipyards. From there, it's speculated they spread North towards Seattle.)

As for California - they likely arrived with Midwesterners as pets/food sources during the 20's and early 30's Dust Bowl Migration.
(Think Grapes of Wrath.)

Released into the wild on purpose - the old way of thinking was "let's introduce species everywhere to help enrich the landscape!"
Nobody foresaw the absolute devastation opossums would wreak on the migratory bird populations of the Great Western Flyway.
They plunder the nests and eat the eggs of the ground-nesting birds like geese and ducks. Also, climb trees and eat chicks out of their nests, devastating the songbird populations.

[minoadlawan]

You should talk about the evolution of Arthropods from Lobopodians.

[Intrusion]

Marsupials are really cool it’s a scientific fact

[chheinrich]

Could you make a video on non therian and non monotreme mammals that survived the kpg extinction like multituberculids

[BillfromIdaho]

Can you give me a formation name for the art at 9:20

[LuisAldamiz]

"Monte" means "mountain" (obviously), "forest" would be "bosque" rather.

[tm]

Marsupials after previous after Dinosaur King All creatures