All kangaroos and marsupials have pouches for their babies, but not all pouches are equal.
Marsupials give birth at a very early stage of development and use their pouch or marsupium to help protect their offspring.
For a marsupial like the kangaroo, which spends most of its time standing upright on two legs, the marsupium opens toward their heads like our shirt pockets, so that gravity helps keep the baby in.
However, for four-legged marsupials that dig in the ground, the pouch faces away from their heads, which makes their babies’ climb from the womb easier and keeps dirt out.
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