Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.
Nobody knew kangaroos existed until about 200 years ago. Australian explorers and settlers saw them then for the first time. The kangaroo, of course, has a pouch, and in Australia, many mammals have pouches. Australia and its neighbouring islands are where most of the pouched animals are found.
Pouched mammals are called ‘the marsupials’. The name comes from the Latin word ‘marsupium’, which means pouch.
The first mammals appeared more than 100,000,000 years ago during the Age of Dinosaurs. Some of these were marsupials, and some were placentals. A placental mammal supplies food to the unborn young within the mother’s body. In marsupial mammals, the pouch serves this purpose. The young ones are born very tiny and develop in the mother’s pouch. When the earth’s climate changed, the dinosaurs died out. The mammals multiplied and developed in many ways.
They became the ruling animals of the earth. The placental mammals were more
successful than the marsupials. Their brains were superior, and it was better for the young to develop inside the mother’s body than in the pouch. In most parts of the world, marsupials have disappeared. They could not compete for living places with other mammals. However, this did not happen in Australia and South America. Scientists believe that Australia was once linked to South-Eastern Asia. So all marsupials moved to Australia at a time when there were no advanced placental mammals there.
They did not have any competition, so they evolved and flourished in many forms.
Whose brain was superior?
A Marsupials
B Dinosaurs
C Placental mammals
Ans 1: (Master Answer)