Abstract
The earliest recorded observations on reproduction in Australian marsupials deal mainly with the anatomy of the female reproductive system. John Hunter dissected and examined the reproductive systems of numerous marsupials but Home (1795), who examined some of Hunter’s specimens, is credited with discovering that the marsupial foetus reached the exterior by way of a direct route between vaginal culs-de-sac and urogenital sinus — the pseudo-vaginal canal. Because of the absence of the pseudovaginal canal in all non-parous, and in many parous marsupials, Home’s conclusions were not generally accepted (see Owen, 1834) until Fletcher (1883) and Stirling (1889) published their observations. Fletcher showed the pseudovaginal canal to be absent in immature but present in parous kangaroos and Stirling dissected a female kangaroo in which the young was passing down the pseudovaginal canal. Hill (1899) showed that the pseudo vaginal canal in Pera-meles closed rapidly after parturition and entrapped within its tissues remnants of the foetal membranes. Hill’s important observations ended a controversy, about the route taken by the marsupial foetus during parturition, which had continued for over 100 years. Pearson’s (1945 and later) papers have contributed greatly to knowledge of the comparative anatomy of the marsupial reproduc-tive system.
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Sharman, G.B. (1959). Marsupial Reproduction. In: Keast, A., Crocker, R.L., Christian, C.S. (eds) Biogeography and Ecology in Australia. Monographiae Biologicae. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6295-3_21
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