To better understand patagium evolution, the team focused on marsupials. That is because the ability to glide has developed repeatedly, using similar anatomical changes, in closely related marsupials ...

Around 100 million years ago, a remarkable evolutionary shift allowed placental mammals to diversify and conquer many cold regions of our planet. New research shows that the typical mammalian heater ...

Researchers explain the genomic and developmental basis of the patagium, the thin skin membrane that allows some mammalian species to soar through the air. People say "When pigs fly" to describe the ...

A parachute-like skin membrane, the patagium, evolved independently in several marsupial species. Genomic analysis suggests that this trait came about through different changes to the regulation of ...

A mini koala meandered through central Australia about 25 million years ago. The newly discovered species belonged to a community that contained the oldest known members of the koala family – and it ...

Koalas are endangered in much of Australia now but in in the past there were multiple species living across the continent. The discovery of an ancient relative of the koala helps fill a 30 million ...

Classification, evolution and behavioural ecology of Australian marsupials / K.W.S. Ashwell -- Overview of marsupial brain organisation and evolution / K.W.S. Ashwell -- Development and sexual ...

The animals — a pygmy long-fingered possum and a newly identified ring-tailed glider — are examples of rare "Lazarus species" that reappear after vanishing from the scientific record. Each species has ...

New research led by Flinders University argues thick tooth enamel helped kangaroos chart an unconventional evolution story, compared to the animals of other continents. A 50-million-year natural ...

The discovery of a fossil hints at the existence of an animal that researchers say could be the missing link in the understanding of evolution of marsupials in Australia. By Natasha Frost Standing ...