Prototherian
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Pronunciation /ˌpɹoʊtɵˈθɪəɹi.ən/ · Part of speech adjective
Quick meaning: Prototherian is an adjective meaning Belonging or pertaining to the subclass Prototheria.
Meaning
Belonging or pertaining to the subclass Prototheria.
More Meanings
- Any of the egg-laying mammals of the subclass Prototheria; a monotreme.
Example Sentences
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.
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.
[…]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.
Word Forms
- prototherians
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include therian, protoheterothecal, telotrematous, theropodous, pteriomorph, chelonian.
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Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
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