Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia,Wallacea,and the Americas. One of the defining features of marsupials is their unique reproductive strategy,where the young are born in a relatively undeveloped state and then nurtured within a pouch on their mother's abdomen.
The platypus,sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus,is a semiaquatic,egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia,including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypic taxon of its family Ornithorhynchidae and genus Ornithorhynchus,though a number of related species appear in the fossil record.
The thylacine,also commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf,is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. The thylacine died out in New Guinea and mainland Australia around 3,600–3,200 years ago,prior to the arrival of Europeans,possibly because of the introduction of the dingo,whose earliest record dates to around the same time,but which never reached Tasmania. Prior to European settlement,around 5,000 remained in the wild on Tasmania. Beginning in the nineteenth century,they were perceived as a threat to the livestock of farmers and bounty hunting was introduced. The last known of its species died in 1936 at Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. The thylacine is widespread in popular culture and is a cultural icon in Australia.
The Tasmanian devil is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. It was formerly present across mainland Australia,but became extinct there around 3,500 years ago;it is now confined to the island of Tasmania. The size of a small dog,the Tasmanian devil became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world following the extinction of the thylacine in 1936. It is related to quolls,and distantly related to the thylacine. It is characterised by its stocky and muscular build,black fur,pungent odour,extremely loud and disturbing screech,keen sense of smell,and ferocity when feeding. The Tasmanian devil's large head and neck allow it to generate among the strongest bites per unit body mass of any extant predatory land mammal. It hunts prey and scavenges on carrion.
Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is an aggressive non-viral clonally transmissible cancer which affects Tasmanian devils,a marsupial native to the Australian island of Tasmania. The cancer manifests itself as lumps of soft and ulcerating tissue around the mouth,which may invade surrounding organs and metastasise to other parts of the body. Severe genetic abnormalities exist in cancer cells—for example,DFT2 cells are tetraploid,containing twice as much genetic material as normal cells. DFTD is most often spread by bites,when teeth come into contact with cancer cells;less important pathways of transmission are ingesting of infected carcasses and sharing of food. Adult Tasmanian devils who are otherwise the fittest are most susceptible to the disease.
A canine transmissible venereal tumor (CTVT),also known as a transmissible venereal tumor (TVT),canine transmissible venereal sarcoma (CTVS),sticker tumor and infectious sarcoma,is a histiocytic tumor of the external genitalia of the dog and other canines,and is transmitted from animal to animal during mating. It is one of only three known transmissible cancers in mammals;the others are devil facial tumor disease,a cancer which occurs in Tasmanian devils,and contagious reticulum cell sarcoma of the Syrian hamster.
Venomous mammals are animals of the class Mammalia that produce venom,which they use to kill or disable prey,to defend themselves from predators or conspecifics or in agonistic encounters. Mammalian venoms form a heterogeneous group with different compositions and modes of action,from four orders of mammals:Eulipotyphla,Monotremata,Primates,and Chiroptera. To explain the rarity of venom delivery in Mammalia,Mark Dufton of the University of Strathclyde has suggested that modern mammalian predators do not need venom because they are able to kill quickly with their teeth or claws,whereas venom,no matter how sophisticated,requires time to disable prey.
The platypus is one of the few living mammals to produce venom. The venom is made in venom glands that are connected to hollow spurs on their hind legs;it is primarily made during the mating season. While the venom's effects are described as extremely painful,it is not lethal to humans. Many archaic mammal groups possess similar tarsal spurs,so it is thought that,rather than having developed this characteristic uniquely,the platypus simply inherited this characteristic from its antecedents. Rather than being a unique outlier,the platypus is the last demonstration of what was once a common mammalian characteristic,and it can be used as a model for non-therian mammals and their venom delivery and properties.
A transmissible cancer is a cancer cell or cluster of cancer cells that can be transferred between individuals without the involvement of an infectious agent,such as an oncovirus. The evolution of transmissible cancer has occurred naturally in other animal species,but human cancer transmission is rare. This transfer is typically between members of the same species or closely related species.
Monotremes are mammals of the order Monotremata. They are the only known group of living mammals that lay eggs,rather than bearing live young. The extant monotreme species are the platypus and the four species of echidnas. Monotremes are typified by structural differences in their brains,jaws,digestive tract,reproductive tract,and other body parts,compared to the more common mammalian types. Although they are different from almost all mammals in that they lay eggs,like all mammals,the female monotremes nurse their young with milk.
Christopher Carl Goodnow is an immunology researcher and the current executive director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. He holds the Bill and Patricia Ritchie Foundation Chair and is a Conjoint Professor in the faculty of medicine at UNSW Sydney. He holds dual Australian and US citizenship.
Jennifer Ann Marshall Graves is an Australian geneticist. She is Distinguished Professor within the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science,La Trobe University,Australia and Professor Emeritus of the Australian National University.
Janine Deakin is a professor at the University of Canberra and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology. She is a geneticist with expertise in the areas of comparative genomics,epigenetics,genetic immunology and genome structure and regulation. A majority of her work has focused on the Australian marsupials and monotremes where her cytogenetic and molecular research on marsupial chromosomes and development of strategies to map genomes has provided important insight into the evolution of mammalian genomes.
Vanessa Hayes is a geneticist conducting research into cancer genomics and comparative human genomics. She leads a research group at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney Australia and holds the Petre Chair of Prostate Cancer Research at the University of Sydney.
Rebecca Nicole Johnson is an Australian scientist (geneticist) and science communicator. Since April 2015,Johnson has been Director and Chief Scientist of the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI),Sydney,the first female to be appointed to the role since the establishment of the Australian Museum in 1827. She is also head of the Australian Museum's Australian Centre for Wildlife Genomics,a wildlife forensics laboratory based at the Australian Museum.
Elizabeth Murchison is a British-Australian geneticist,Professor of Comparative Oncology and Genetics at the University of Cambridge,UK. The ongoing research of her group focuses on the known existing clonally transmissible cancers arising in mammals. These are cancers that can be passed on between individuals by the transfer of living cancer cells that somehow manage to evade the immune system of their hosts.
Anne-Maree Pearse is an Australian cytogeneticist who is credited with the theory that some cancer cells can be transmissible between individuals. This is known as the allograft theory. Her work has focussed on devil facial tumour disease (DFTD),a contagious cancer that affects Tasmanian devils. For this she has won multiple awards,including the 2012 Prince Hitachi Prize for Comparative Oncology.
Katherine A. Hoadley is an American breast cancer researcher. As of 2017,she has served as the Associate Director of Cancer Genomics for the High-Throughput Sequencing Facility at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research is focused on understanding the biology of cancer through gene expression analyses and integrative genomic approaches.
Lyn Robyn Griffiths is an Australian academic who serves as Distinguished Professor of molecular genetics at Queensland University of Technology,where she is director of the Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health,the Genomics Research Centre and the BridgeTech Programs. Griffiths is internationally renowned for her work in the discovery of the genetics of migraine headaches.
Lynn Corcoran is an American–Australian immunologist who is Professor of Immunology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Her research considers cancer,parasitology and immunology,with a focus on B cells biology. She was inducted into the Victorian government's Honour Roll in 2013.
