Who are you calling an immigrant?
Shock waves resounded across Australia yesterday as it was revealed that the most iconic of all Australian animals was in fact an imposter!
Yes previously the kangaroo was as Australian as you could get, Rolf Harris penned a hit single about it, it was portrayed on TV screens as Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo and it became one of the unofficial symbols of Australia, yet all along it was hiding a secret – it and other marsupials like it, are in fact immigrants!
Brace yourselves now for the kangaroo, wombat, Tasmanian devils and other marsupial creatures have been found to be descended from one common ancestor, who hailed from South America.
The animals are believed to have migrated to Australia from South America millions of years ago when all the southern continents were just a single land mass. It was previously thought that the marsupials all started out as native Australians and migrated to South America, but research has now proved that wrong. Once in Australia they evolved into different evolutionary groups.
Scientists made the remarkable discovery in Germany where they were studying genetic markers of the marsupials. The markers all pointed to one common ancestor who was tracked down to South America.
The German scientists screened the genetic markers of a South American opossum and compared it to the Australian tammar wallaby as well as 20 other marsupials. They were looking for a so-called ‘jumping gene’ called a retroposon which is often a reliable indicator of the relationship between similar animals. All of the marsupials screened showed that they shared the same retroposon, pointing to one common ancestor. As the South American marsupials had fewer retroposon revisions, this proved that they were the older branches of the family tree and therefore the originators.
The kangaroo has now made a home for itself in Australia and there are an estimated 50 million of them, no doubt adding to the population crisis. Skippy had better watch out that Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard doesn’t start asking for visas!
But since the marsupial has been living in Australia for around 120 million years, I’m sure that even Ms Gillard can make an exception in this case. It seems that the kangaroo liked what it saw in Australia – well who wouldn’t? – and adopted it as it’s native country. And as it was here before any human habitation was formed, I think it’s long overdue a citizenship ceremony!
Other related articles:
- Skippy FilmMaker Gets Australian Passport - The man who has rescued Skippy the bush kangaroo gets...
- Prince Charles In Immigrant Gaffe With Australian - Prince Charles asks an Australian if he's an illegal immigrant....
- Australian Immigrant Wins Surf Lesson With Abbott - One lucky Australian immigrant wins a surfing lesson with Tony...
- Will Julia Gillard Be Australia’s First Woman PM? - The media are loving Julia Gillard, but will the voters?...
Love Australia? Let us keep you informed...
- Join the Embrace Australia community today. Have your questions answered by our experts, start your own blog, get vital migration information and gain valuable insight from those who have already made the journey.
- Subscribe to our RSS Feed and have all our daily news and features delivered straight to your news reader.
- Join our mailing list -
