monotreme

mon·o·treme  (mn-trm)

n.

A member of the Monotremata, an order of primitive egg-laying mammals restricted to Australia and New Guinea and consisting of only the platypus and the echidna.

---

[From New Latin Monotrmata, order name : mono- + Greek trma, trmat-, perforation; see ter-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

---

mono·trema·tous (-trm-ts) adj.

---

monotreme  (mn-trm)

Any of various mammals of the order Monotremata. Monotremes are the most primitive type of living mammal. They lay eggs and have a single opening (cloaca) for reproduction and elimination of wastes. The females have no teats but provide milk directly through the skin to their young. The only living monotremes are the duck-billed platypus, found in Australia and New Guinea, and the echidnas, found in New Guinea. Monotremes may have evolved already in the Jurassic Period, but the precise nature of their relationship to marsupials and placental mammals is disputed.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

monotreme - the most primitive mammals comprising the only extant members of the subclass Prototheria egg-laying mammal prototherian - primitive oviparous mammals found only in Australia and Tasmania and New Guinea echidna, spiny anteater, anteater - a burrowing monotreme mammal covered with spines and having a long snout and claws for hunting ants and termites; native to Australia echidna, spiny anteater, anteater - a burrowing monotreme mammal covered with spines and having a long snout and claws for hunting ants and termites; native to New Guinea duck-billed platypus, duckbilled platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, platypus, duckbill - small densely furred aquatic monotreme of Australia and Tasmania having a broad bill and tail and webbed feet; only species in the family Ornithorhynchidae