MARSUPIALS

The January issue of Scientific American (1985) p.60 discusses whether marsupials originated in Australia and radiated via Antarctica to the Americas thence Europe or the reverse. It is stated that the marsupials flourished about 50 million years ago, and comments that proponents of continental drift think that Australia was connected to S America about that time. The Urantia Book tells us that the ancestors of the kangaroos roamed Australia 45 million years ago, and that 35 million years ago the southern land bridge was extensive, reconnecting the then enormous Antarctic continent with South America, South Africa, and Australia.

Marsupial fossils have been found in Australia in strata designated as Upper Oligocene (about 35-40 million years ago), and in America in strata from the Cretaceous more than 65 million years ago. The fossil evidence indicates that marsupials could not have reached Australia from Asia or from Africa.

Recently marsupial fossils have been found on Seymour Island in Antarctica None of this is too surprising in 1990, but remember that when the Urantia Papers were received, virtually nobody believed in the concept of continental drift, and the notion that animals could migrate between Australia and America via Antarctica would have seemed utterly preposterous.
REFERENCES: The Urantia Book, pages 694, 695; Scientific American 1985, January issue, p.60; “The Evolving Earth” (British Museum, Ed.L.R.M. Cocks, 198 1) (Cambridge University Press) THE RED MAN TO THE AMERICAS

The Urantia Book tells us that the red man crossed from Asia to America 85,000 years ago. Until recently, most anthropologists believed that the Americas had been inhabited by humans for no more than 12,000 years. This date has been pushed back to 30-40,000 years.
REFERENCES: Scientific American, 249,(6),1985; Scientific American, 258(6),22. 1988.