Morphological convergence, shared phenotypic traits representing adaptations to particular behaviours or environmental constraints, provide a useful way of understanding animal ecology and evolution.

Certainly, the search for functional analogues between marsupial and placental mammals has been a mainstay in understanding and communicating marsupial diversity. From marsupial moles to ‘Tasmanian tigers’, the attribution of familiar names to unfamiliar animals provides an accessible way of broadly categorising animals, but is it possible to find true analogues between these two groups, and if so, what are they?

Marsupial moles are certainly ‘moleform’, but Thylacines are neither ‘tigers’ nor ‘wolves’. More difficult again are the Macropodoids, kangaroos and their relatives, who are far more diverse than typically considered.

As the dominant mammalian herbivores of the Australian continent, they range from diminutive rainforest inhabitants to large and specialized saltators of open arid areas, giant bipedal walkers and rock dwellers, and while most are terrestrial arboreal forms have evolved more than once.

In reviewing recent research in this field, Dr Warburton will present case studies that highlight some of the great diversity in morphology that belies the taxonomic classification of ‘macropods’ and propose some alternative hypotheses of marsupial-placental convergence.