This process of evolution of different species in a given geographical area starting from a point and literally radiating to other areas of geography (habitats) is called adaptive radiation. Australian marsupials represent one of the best examples of this phenomenon exhibiting convergent evolution. Placental mammals in Australia also exhibit adaptive radiation in evolving into varieties of such placental mammals each of which appears to be ‘similar’ to a corresponding marsupial like flying squirrel and flying phalanger, wolf and Tasmanian wolf, antaeter and numbat etc., each different from the other evolved from an ancestral stock, but all within the Australian island continent.