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Recommended for: Grades 9-12

Resource: Convergence: Marsupials and Placentals

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This graphic illustrates some of the marsupial mammals in Australia and placental mammals in North America. Even though they are not closely related, these mammals look alike because they have adapted to similar ecological roles.

Teachers' Domain, Convergence: Marsupials and Placentals, published September 26, 2003, retrieved on ,
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.evo.convergence/

Marsupial and placental mammals diverged from a common ancestor more than 100 million years ago, and have evolved independently ever since. The two groups have different modes of reproduction, yet within each group individual species that occupy similar niches have evolved similarities in overall shape, locomotion, and feeding habits. This widespread evolutionary phenomenon is known as convergence.