which are the egg laying mammals?
Answers
Answer:
Only two kinds of egg-laying mammals are left on the planet today—the duck-billed platypus and the echidna, or spiny anteater. These odd “monotremes” once dominated Australia, until their pouch-bearing cousins, the marsupials, invaded the land down under 71 million to 54 million years ago and swept them away.
Answer:
Egg-laying Mammals
There are only five living monotreme species: the duck-billed platypus and four species of echidna (also known as spiny anteaters). All of them are found only in Australia and New Guinea. Monotremes are not a very diverse group today, and there has not been much fossil information known until rather recently.
In some ways, monotremes are very primitive for mammals because, like reptiles and birds, they lay eggs rather than having live birth. In a number of other respects, monotremes are rather derived, having highly modified snouts or beaks, and modern adult monotremes have no teeth. Like other mammals, however, monotremes have a single bone in their lower jaw, three middle ear bones, high metabolic rates, hair, and they produce milk to nourish the young.
Click on the buttons below to learn more about Monotremes
Fossil Record Life & Ecology Systematics Systematics
Read about monotremes at the University of Tasmania, who have one of the best sites on the web about living monotremes.
Try the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web for more information about living monotremes. The Tasmanian Mammals page includes distributional information on monotremes.