Primitive Mouse-Like Creature May Be Ancestral Mother Of Australia's Unusual Pouched MammalsThe Monito del Monte (Dromiciops gliroides) (Credit: Image courtesy of University of New South Wales) ScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2008) — They are separated by a vast ocean and by millions of years, but tiny prehistoric bones found on an Australian farm have been directly linked to a strange and secretive little animal that lives today in the southern rainforests of South America. The fossilised ankle and ear bones are those of Australia's earliest known marsupial, Djarthia, a primitive mouse-like creature that lived 55 million years ago. It is a...