Marsupial Mammals What is a Marsupial? Marsupials are a group of mammals that have an external pouch located on their mother's abdomen in which they carry their young. Most marsupials live in Australia, where they have evolved into some unique and unusual animals. Marsupials range in size from the 1.8 meter tall red kangaroo which weighs 90kgs to the tiny, shrew-like long-tailed planigale which is just 6 cm in length and weighs only 4 gms.
Whale ribs loosely articulate with their thoracic vertebrae at the proximal end, but they do not form a rigid rib cage. This adaptation allows the chest to compress during deep dives as opposed to resisting the force of water pressure.
Whales are the largest animals that live on the planet. They are marine mammals that belong to the order of cetacea, which includes roughly 80 species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Many species of whales migrate long distances each year between feeding and breeding grounds. 2  Whales are divided up between baleen whales and toothed whales. 3  Baleen whales are filter feeders, feeding on the oceans smallest organisms like krill, while toothed whales feed on fish, squid, and other marine mammals.