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Diprotodonts | Diprotodontia
Buideldieren met twee snijtanden | Diprotodontos
Marsupials whose lower jaw carries only a single pair of incisors: long, pointing forward and working against the upper incisors like a pair of tongs that nips off grass and leaves. There are no lower canines, and behind the incisors lies a toothless gap in front of the grinding cheekteeth. The hind foot is just as characteristic: the second and third toes are bound together in one sheath of skin as far as the claws, forming a double comb with which the animal grooms its fur. Almost the whole order lives on plant food. The young is born after a very short pregnancy, hardly bigger than a bean and with only the forelimbs developed; it climbs to the pouch unaided, fastens onto a teat and grows on there for months.
Families in this order
- Kangaroos and wallabies | Macropodidae1 speciesEverything about these animals is built for hopping. The hind foot is long and narrow and bears chiefly on the fourth toe; in the lower leg lie heavy elastic tendons that are stretched at each landing and give their energy back at the push-off, so that hopping faster costs hardly more effort than hopping slowly. The tail is heavy and tapering and serves as a counterweight in the air; at walking pace it is planted on the ground as a fifth limb while the hind legs swing forward. The forelimbs are short and used to grasp and to dig. The cheekteeth move forward through the jaw with age and drop out at the front once worn away. The pouch opens forward; a female may carry a dormant embryo, a young at the teat and a grown joey at heel all at once. Europe holds one introduced wallaby, in damp woodland and heath.