Amazingly Marvelous Marsupials! Part 5

1. Two species of marsupial mole make up the family Notoryctidae (the Southern Marsupial Mole and the Northern Marsupial Mole). These marsupials spend most of their lives underground in Australia's sandy deserts and only rarely come to the surface. Marsupial moles have numerous adaptations for living underground. They are blind (their eyes are non-functional and found under the skin) and lack external ears. Their forelimbs are equipped with special claws for burrowing through the sand. Their pouches face backwards to avoid sand entering as they tunnel. Marsupial moles have their testes in the abdominal wall instead of a scrotum, helping them to move easily through sand and soil. While they aren't actually moles, they are small burrowing marsupials that anatomically converge on fossorial placental mammals, such as extant golden moles and extinct epoicotheres, an extinct paraphyletic family of insectivorous placental mammals. Does this fascinating marsupial look like a mole to you?

2. Tree kangaroos are a group of kangaroos with adaptations for an arboreal (tree-dwelling) lifestyle, including long tails, large feet and long arms. There are 13 species of tree kangaroo; together they make up the genus Dendrolagus. Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo is one of just two tree kangaroos found in Australia (the other being Bennett's tree-kangaroo, Dendrolagus bennettianus). The other tree kangaroos are found on New Guinea and neighboring islands. Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo is the smallest tree kangaroo, weighing 7 kg / 15.4 lb. and with a body and tail length of 1.24 m / 4.1 ft. It is found in the rainforests of Queensland, Australia. The species is solitary outside of the mating season, and usually active at night. In recent years, there have been reports of Lumholtz's tree-kangaroos going blind have occurred, but the cause remains a mystery, with theories including drought-induced toxic leaf consumption and a potential virus. Had you heard of tree kangaroos before this survey?