Difference between revisions of "Kangaroo"

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(Undo revision 510832 by Conservative; Being atheistic doesn't mean subscribing to the theory of evolution.)
(Undo revision 512818 by Rspeed (Talk): that's why Conservative said "and/or" athiestic)
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===Evolution===
 
===Evolution===
The [[Evolution|evolutionary]] view is that kangaroos and other marsupials evolved from a common marsupial ancestor which lived hundreds of millions of years ago.<ref>[http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1995/australia.html "Australian Mammals: Evolutionary Development as a Result of Geographic Isolation"]</ref>
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The [[Atheism|atheist]] and/or [[Evolution|evolutionary]] view is that kangaroos and other marsupials evolved from a common marsupial ancestor which lived hundreds of millions of years ago.<ref>[http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1995/australia.html "Australian Mammals: Evolutionary Development as a Result of Geographic Isolation"]</ref>
  
 
===Dreamtime===
 
===Dreamtime===

Revision as of 21:16, September 8, 2008

Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)

Kangaroos are the largest marsupials alive today. Excluding specimens sent overseas, they are only found on the continent of Australia apart from some species in some areas of Papua New Guinea[1]. There are at least sixty-nine species of kangaroo [2], which include wallabies and tree-kangaroos.

Description

Kangaroos have large ears on top of their small heads, a long snout, and short arms with clawed fingers. Their legs are strong, powerful, and are made for leaping. Their feet have four toes at the end of elongated metatarsi that they rest on when standing. They also have a powerful, thick tail that is used as support when standing, a third-leg when walking slowly, and for counterbalance while leaping. Like all Marsupials, female kangaroos have a pouch on their stomachs in which they carry their young.

Diet

Kangaroos are herbivores, eating grass, roots, and shrubs. They have a chambered stomach similar to sheep and cattle. They are able to regurgitate their food, chew it again as cud, and then swallow it for digestion.

Social Order

Kangaroos travel in mobs of about ten or more males and females. The leader of the mob, called a "boomer", is a male determined by age and size. The boomer has access to females in his mob for mating and will wander around the mob intimidating any other males who try to mate with his harem.

Reproduction

Female kangaroos usually only have one baby kangaroo (called a "joey") at a time. The newborn joey weighs as little as .03 ounces when first born, after which it crawls into its mothers pouch where it will nurse, grow, and develop. Red Kangaroo joeys will stay in their mothers pouch for about eight months and Grey Kangaroo joeys stay in there for about one year.

Development of the Young in the Pouch

Kangaroos have adapted to the varied conditions across Australia in many ways. One of the most unusual, is the way females of some species can delay the progress of pregnancy. In this way the female is ready to give birth to a replacement for the young in her pouch if it dies early, or within a week of when it permanently leaves the pouch. This ability to delay births means that there can be up to 12 months between a mating and the birth of the young one resulting from that mating (when the normal gestation period is less than 35 days). It also means that the species can best respond to periods of drought and plenty.

Species which have this unusual ability normally mate again soon after the female gives birth. The tiny newly born kangaroo (less than 25 mm long) moves unaided into its mother's pouch and attaches itself to one of four teats. During the early stages of pouch life the young is permanently attached to the teat, but as it matures and begins to grow hair it also develops the ability to release and reattach itself to the teat.

In the late stages of pouch life, once it has a thin covering of fur, the young one begins to explore the outside world for increasing lengths of time until eventually it is old enough to be excluded permanently from the pouch. Complete weaning may take a number of months more after the young has permanently left the pouch. If the mother gives birth during this time, the newborn young will attach itself to a different teat to that being used by the older young. It is remarkable that when this happens the mother produces two different kinds of milk for the two different-aged young[2].

Origins

Creationism

Consistent with their view that the fossil record as a whole does not support the evolutionary position[3][4], creationists state that there is a lack of transitional fossils showing an evolutionary origin of kangaroos. Rebecca Driver writes:

The Macropod family is alleged to have evolved from either the Phalangeridae (possums) or Burramyidae (pygmy-possums)...
However, there are no fossils of animals which appear to be intermediate between possums and kangaroos. Wabularoo naughtoni, supposed ancestor of all the macropods, was clearly a kangaroo (it greatly resembles the potoroos which dwell in Victoria’s forests). If modern kangaroos really did come from it, all this shows is the same as we see happening today, namely that kangaroos come from kangaroos, "after their kind." [5]

According to the origins theory model used by young earth creation scientists, modern kangaroos are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard Noah's Ark prior to the Great Flood. It has not yet been determined by baraminologists whether kangaroos form a holobaramin with the wallaby, tree-kangaroo, wallaroo, pademelon and quokka, or if all these species are in fact apobaraminic or polybaraminic.

After the Flood, these kangaroos bred from the Ark passengers migrated to Australia. There is debate whether this migration happened over land[6] with lower sea levels during the post-flood ice age, or before the super-continent of Pangea broke apart.[7]

The idea that God simply generated kangaroos into existence there is considered by most creation researchers to be contra-Biblical.

Evolution

The atheist and/or evolutionary view is that kangaroos and other marsupials evolved from a common marsupial ancestor which lived hundreds of millions of years ago.[8]

Dreamtime

Some Australian Aborigines believe that kangaroos were sung into existence by their ancestors during the Dreamtime.[9]

External Links

References

  1. Australia's kangaroos, Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Kangaroo Biology", Australian Government
  3. "Fossils Questions and Answers", Answers In Genesis
  4. Creation/Evolution Quotes: Fossil Record
  5. Driver, Rebecca, Kangaroos: God's amazing craftsmanship, Creation 20(3):28–31, June 1998.
  6. "How did animals get from the Ark to places such as Australia", Chapter 17 of The Creation Answers Book, by Don Batten (Ed.)
  7. "Pangea and the Flood", Apologetics Press
  8. "Australian Mammals: Evolutionary Development as a Result of Geographic Isolation"
  9. "An Aborigine Creation Story"