What is unique about the way in which marsupials are born?

Answer 1

I assume that you're talking about marsupial mammals. At first, they are born live, like human babies. The difference is that the mother's gestatoin period (nine months in humans) is very short, so the babies are born very undeveloped. After emerging from the birth canal, the babies must immediately crawl to the mother's nipple, which may or may not be surrounded by a pouch (for protection). They attach themselves to the nipple and suckle for several weeks or months without getting off it. By the end of this time, they are much more developed.

Answer 2

In a pouch mainly.

The baby marsupial, known as a joey, emerges from the birth canal, much as any mammal young does, but it is completely blind and hairless. Moving by instinct only, it crawls up the mother's fur to the pouch, where it attaches to a teat. The teat then swells in the joey's mouth, securing it through all the mother's movement so it cannot be dislodged, until it has grown for several weeks.

There are some species, such as the numbat, which do not develop in a pouch because the female has no pouch. In the case of the numbat, the young cling to the mother's underside, still firmly attached to the teat by their mouth, as the teat swells up in the embryo's mouth.

Answer 3

This depends upon the species of marsupial.

The shortest gestation period known among the marsupials belongs to the Virginian opossum and the yapok (an unusual, rare water opossum), which both have a gestation period period of 12-13 days.

Some kangaroo species have a gestation period of 36 days.

Either way, their gestation is very short compared to that of placental mammals. This is because when a young marsupial joey is born, it must make its way by instinct into the mother's pouch where it latches onto a teat: here it stays, continuing its development for many more months. It is as dependent upon its time in the pouch as other animals' young are dependent on their time in the mother's uterus in order to grow properly.

Answer 4

Because marsupials are typically born underdeveloped, their mothers are often very protective of them. In many instances, marsupials are raised inside the pouch of their mother, where they nurse on a teat inside.

Answer 5

From the female body which the young is then put in a pouch.