prototherian

English

The echidna, an example of a prototherian

Etymology

From Prototheria, from Ancient Greek πρωτο- (prōto-, “proto-, first”) + θηρίον (thēríon, “beast”); +‎ -ian.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌpɹoʊtɵˈθɪəɹi.ən/

Adjective

prototherian (comparative more prototherian, superlative most prototherian)

1. Belonging or pertaining to the subclass Prototheria of monotremes.
   • 1889, Henry Alleyne Nicholson, Richard Lydekker, A Manual of Palæontology, 3rd edition, William Blackwood and Sons, page 1290:

     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.

   • 1970, William A. Clemens, “Mesozoic Mammalian Evolution”, in Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, volume 1, page 363:

     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.

   • 2000, Monroe W. Strickberger, Evolution, third edition, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, →ISBN, pages 446–447:

     […]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).

Noun

prototherian (plural prototherians)

1. Any of the egg-laying mammals of the subclass Prototheria; a monotreme.
   • 1999, George A. Feldhamer, Mammalogy: Adaptation, Diversity, and Ecology, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 192:

     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.

Translations

Translations

• Italian: prototerio (it)