A new study by a group of British, French and American scientists, posted in Current Biology, says that marsupials are an evolutionarily more advanced species than elephants or primates, contrary to previous belief that they are inherently an intermediate stage of development between oviparous and placental mammals.
Gismeteo reports that in order to dispel this myth, experts have studied the evolutionary process of a common ancestor of marsupials and placentals, which lived on Earth about 100 million years ago, thanks to which they were able to turn the existing ideas about how mammals evolved. Scientists have concluded that in the process of evolution, marsupial mammals, on the contrary, have gone further in development from a common ancestor, unlike placental ones, which makes them the most advanced, and not placental at all, as previously thought.
The scientists speculate that this way of marsupial reproduction may represent a more “flexible” approach to how to procreate, giving the mother more control over how the baby develops in the earliest stages, being able to get rid of the offspring in the event of “unforeseen difficulties.”
Source: Rosbalt
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