IELTS Mini-Readings, 9 of 25: Australia has lots of cute things, you know? @ Andrew安德魯雅思權威

Joey in pouch.jpg

Australian Marsupials

Australia has many strange animals, but most of them belong to a single type of animal, known as a marsupial. So, what is a marsupial? Well, the answer is that all marsupials carry their babies in a pouch – or bag – around their stomachs, as you can see in the picture above. The other thing is that marsupial babies are very tiny and undeveloped, and must crawl up themselves into this pouch. These babies are known as ‘joeys’ – and at the beginning they are only the size of a jelly bean. Once the joey safely gets into the pouch, it will stay there for several months. Eventually, much bigger now, it sticks its head out, and sees the world for the first time. [Again, look at the picture above.]

Some well-known marsupials are kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, possums, wombats and Tasmanian devils. Most marsupials are in Australia, but there are some in South and Central America. The big question is: why are marsupials so different? The answer is that they evolved that way. About 50 million years ago, the first early marsupials reached Australia. Australia eventually became an island, and these early marsupials were left alone to evolve into many different types – and all possessed with that signature ‘pouch’ to show what sort of animals they are.

One interest fact is that long ago in the past, some of these marsupials were very big. Diprotodon was the largest marsupial of all. It lived 1.6 million years ago, and was as big as a small elephant. Unfortunately, it became extinct about 50,000 years ago. Some of the earliest people in Australia may have actually seen them, and may have contributed to their extinction. Think how much meat just one diprotodon could provide to an aboriginal tribe!