Southern marsupial mole pouch young development

The first Notoryctes pouch young (embryo) was described and illustrated by Wood Jones (1921), but the age of this specimen is unknown. He described it as 10mm in length. Later other authors (Schneider and Gurovich, 2017) described the anatomy including the oral anatomy in detail and described the hindlimbs of the N. typhlops pouch young as paddle like and well developed fore limbs (Schneider and Gurovich, 2017; Fig. 1o; Table 2b). However, due to its overall developmental stage, well-developed forelimbs but still paddle-like hindlimbs, it may be suggested that this illustrated specimen represents an only recently born pouch young. Interestingly, this specimen only has two prominent digits (IIIand VI) armoured with claws on each digit of the front pedes.

References:

Schneider, N. Y., & Gurovich, Y. (2017). Morphology and evolution of the oral shield in marsupial neonates including the newborn monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides, Marsupialia Microbiotheria) pouch young. Journal of anatomy, 231(1), 59-83.

Wood Jones FW (1921) The external characters of pouch embryos of marsupials. No. 2 Notoryctes typhlops. Trans. R. Soc S Aust 55, 36–39.