Meaning

Belonging or pertaining to the subclass Prototheria..

Definitions by Sense

1. Belonging or pertaining to the subclass Prototheria.
2. Any of the egg-laying mammals of the subclass Prototheria; a monotreme.

Example Sentences

[…]the modern remaining prototherian lines are the Australian and New Guinean monotremes, egg-laying mammals now represented by the grub- and shrimp-eating platypus (Ornithorhyncus) and ant-eating echidna (Tachyglossus and Zaglossus).

It is evident that the Edentates are widely separated from all other existing Eutherians; and Professor W. K. Parker, in view of the tendency to a variation in the number of cervical vertebræ and other features, has suggested a separate origin from a Prototherian stock.

In his classification of prototherian mammals Hopson (31) queried the allocation of Haramiyidae to the Multituberculata and suggested that multituberculates were derived from a morganucodontid ancestry.

Monotremes (prototherians), which include the duck-billed platypus, and short- and long-beaked echidnas, have a cloaca—a single opening for the fecal, urinary, and reproductive tracts.

Word Forms

• more prototherian
• most prototherian
• prototherians

Related Words

When Should You Use Prototherian?

Use prototherian when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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