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Wikipedia: Monotremata
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Monotremes are mammals that are best known for laying eggs, instead of giving birth to their young like marsupials and eutheria?s.
The word monotreme comes from the Greek words mono- and trema, meaning one and hole. The one hole refers to the fact that monotremes have a single opening for the urinary, digestive and reproductive organs.
Like other mammals, monotremes
- are warm-blooded with high metabolic rates
- have hair on their bodies
- produce milk to feed their young
- have a single bone in their lower jaw
- have three inner ear bones
The only surviving examples are all indigenous to Australia and New Guinea:
- Platypus has only one genus comprising one species: Ormithorhynchus anatinus.
- Echidna?, or spiny anteaters, have two genuses with several species each: Tachyglossus and Zaglossus.
See the University of Tasmania's monotreme web site at http://www.healthsci.utas.edu.au/physiol/mono/Monotremata.html.