Diprotodontia is a mammalian order within the infraclass Marsupialia, comprising the largest and most diverse radiation of herbivorous and omnivorous Australasian marsupials, including kangaroos, wallabies, possums, koalas, and wombats. It is defined morphologically by diprotodont dentition, characterized by a single pair of large, procumbent lower incisors, and syndactyly, in which the second and third toes of the hind foot are fused except for their claws. Members exhibit a wide range of locomotor and dietary specializations, from arboreal folivory to terrestrial grazing, and they show complex reproductive strategies typical of marsupials, including altricial young and prolonged postnatal development in a pouch.
Scientists have discovered that marsupial forelimbs (arms) develop much earlier before birth than previously thought, providing new insights into evolutionary innovation and biology.
Plants & Animals
12 hours ago
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Bones preserved in underwater caves offer a rare and powerful window into the past—but until now, researchers have had limited tools to understand how the remains of extinct megafauna and other animals came to rest in their ...
Paleontology & Fossils
14 hours ago
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Horses know a predator when they see one—even if it's only on a video screen while they're standing in a stall, with no sounds, smells or previous experience providing context for what they're viewing, a new study suggests.
Plants & Animals
14 hours ago
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Human-created hazards are responsible for most wildlife rescues in New South Wales, and researchers are calling for more prevention strategies to save threatened species.
Plants & Animals
15 hours ago
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Australia's largest gliding marsupial may not be the country's best glider after all, according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU) that challenges a decades-old belief about how far southern greater ...
Plants & Animals
16 hours ago
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5
In what's been hailed as a "massive breakthrough," a chlamydia vaccine implant has been administered to a wild koala for the first time. This is the only koala chlamydia vaccine that uses two doses. Now, thanks to the implant, ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 14, 2026
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Roughly 50,000 years ago, a kangaroo unlike any alive today lived in the mountain rainforests of New Guinea.
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 10, 2026
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Australia is racing to contain the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), which is now believed to have infected seven seabirds.
Ecology
Jul 8, 2026
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Australia is home to unusual mammals not found anywhere else—consider the platypus, Tasmanian devil or red kangaroo. But did you know our understanding of this continent's incredible mammalian diversity is still incomplete?
Plants & Animals
Jun 25, 2026
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Like humans, wildlife is increasingly vulnerable as climate change fuels longer and more intense heat waves, disrupting feeding and breeding and, in extreme cases, proving fatal.
Environment
Jun 19, 2026
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