METATHERIA
Back to SpecMarsupials, mammals that give bird to underdeveloped embryos and then suckle them in special pouches, are rather more diverse in Spec than in Arel. These mammals probably evolved in North America, but migrated to South America very early (Paleocene or before), giving rise to many endemic families. When North and South America again came into contact in the Pliocene, there was some shuffling of species, but most South American marsupials are native.
SAMPLE TAXA:NOTOENITORIIDAE
Stimpies are an ancient family of South American marsupials, convergent with the thylacoursines of North America and the koalas of Australia. Once, these creatures were far more wide-spread, but under the the predation of the predatory arbros and the combined competition of the fruit-arbros and primates, the stimpies have been forced into a few highly specialized niches. Most extant notoenitoriids, belong to the genus Thylacoursoides and exist as foliovores in the Amazon.Though deceitfully similiar to koalas in appearance stimpies (genera Thylacoursoides and Vestiursa) aren't closely related to the marsupials that on Arel lead to koalas. The large hairless noses of stimpies are used by the marsupials to tell different species from each other as well as sexual ornaments and resonance chambers to amplify the stimpies' calls. The very existance of such an organ has lead many biologists to question the old view of stimpies as solitary animals with very little interaction with the other members of their species outside the mating season.
(Text by Daniel Bensen and Matti Aumala)