Question

A group of animals having marsupium is known as
A. Monotremata
B. Eutheria
C. Metatheria
D. Pantotheria

Answer 1

Hint: Animals are the multicellular Eukaryotic organisms that belong to Kingdom Animalia. Animals have the characteristics like they eat food, perform metabolic reactions, reproduction, breathe oxygen, etc.

Complete Answer:
- Marsupium is a Latin word which means the pouch. The word marsupial is derived from this latin word i.e. Marsupium.
- The presence of a pouch is the characteristic feature of marsupials. The pouch is a fold of skin with only one opening that covers the teats.
- Marsupials are the non-placental mammals which belong to the group metatheria. Marsupials give birth to a live but an undeveloped fetus which is called a joey.
- When the joey was born it crawls from the inside of the mother to the pouch. Inside the mother’s pouch the fetus attaches itself to one of the mother’s teats.
- Fetus grows there and remains attached to the teats until it gets developed to the juvenile stage.
Example – Kangaroo.

Additional information:
1. Monotremata – Monotremes are the main group of living mammals. The monotremes are characterized by the structural differences in their brains, jaws, digestive tract, reproductive tract and other body parts. These mammals lay eggs but females nurse their young one with milk.
2. Eutheria – Eutheria are the placental mammals that are found in Europe, Africa, Asia, America, Australia, and Antarctica, etc.
3. Pantotheria – Pantothenic is the extinct class of primitive middle and upper Jurassic mammals. These mammals were egg-laying insectivores. They have shrew like appearance.

Hence, option C is the correct option for this question.

Note: Metatheria is a mammalian clade which includes all the mammals which are closely related to the marsupials (having pouches). Metatheria group was first proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1880.They are different from other animals in certain morphological characters which include about five upper and four lower incisors, a canine, three premolars and four molars.