Monotremes (monos, single + trema, hole; refers to the cloaca) are mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young like marsupials (Metatheria) and placental mammals (Eutheria). The subclass comprises a single order, Monotremata (though sometimes the subclass Prototheria is used). An infant monotreme is known as a puggle.
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| - Monotremes (monos, single + trema, hole; refers to the cloaca) are mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young like marsupials (Metatheria) and placental mammals (Eutheria). The subclass comprises a single order, Monotremata (though sometimes the subclass Prototheria is used). An infant monotreme is known as a puggle.
- The fossil record of monotremes is relatively sparse. Although biochemical and anatomical evidence suggests that monotremes diverged from the mammalian lineage before the marsupials and placental mammals arose, only a handful of monotreme fossils are known from before the Miocene epoch. The few Mesozoic fossils that do exist, such as that of Steropodon, seem to indicate that the monotremes first evolved in Australia, during the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous. They subsequently spread to both South America and Antarctica, which were still united with Australia at that time, but may not have survived on either continent for long.
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| - Early Cretaceous - Recent
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| - Tachyglossidae
- Ornithorhynchidae
- †Kollikodontidae
- †Steropodontidae
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abstract
| - Monotremes (monos, single + trema, hole; refers to the cloaca) are mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young like marsupials (Metatheria) and placental mammals (Eutheria). The subclass comprises a single order, Monotremata (though sometimes the subclass Prototheria is used). An infant monotreme is known as a puggle.
- The fossil record of monotremes is relatively sparse. Although biochemical and anatomical evidence suggests that monotremes diverged from the mammalian lineage before the marsupials and placental mammals arose, only a handful of monotreme fossils are known from before the Miocene epoch. The few Mesozoic fossils that do exist, such as that of Steropodon, seem to indicate that the monotremes first evolved in Australia, during the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous. They subsequently spread to both South America and Antarctica, which were still united with Australia at that time, but may not have survived on either continent for long.
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