Scientists said they had for the first time mapped the genetic code of the Australian marsupials and found much of it was similar to the genome for humans, the government-backed Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics said. “We thought they’d be completely scrambled, but they’re not. There is great chunks of the human genome which is sitting right there in the kangaroo genome,” center Director Jenny Graves told reporters in Melbourne.

Humans and kangaroos last shared an ancestor at least 150 million years ago, the researchers found. Kangaroos first evolved in China, but migrated across the Americas to Australia and Antarctica, they said.

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