LECT. II.] THE DUCKBILLED PLATYPUS. 



OP THP, 



UNIVERSITY 



LECTURE II. 



PROTOTHERIA (MONOTREMATA). 



THE lowest, or teatless mammals, still linger in the 

 Australian region, in the form of the spiny Ant-eater, 

 or Echidna, and the great Water-Mole (Platypus, or 

 Ornithorhynchus). A few fossils have been found in 

 this same region, and described by Sir Richard Owen as 



FIG. 2. Young of Ornithorhynchus par adoxus, one half the 

 natural size. 



belonging to a larger species of Echidna than any of 

 the three known existing kinds. 



But in the northern world (Arctogoea) no remains of 

 any kind of Monotreme Duckbill, or Echidna have, 

 rewarded the labour of the palaeontologist. Yet fossil 

 marsupials have long been known in this hemisphere ; 

 although, as Professor 0. C. Marsh suggests, Microlestes 

 the oldest of these the jaws of which are found at 



