70 CHARACTERS OF VERTEBRATE ANIMALS 



There is only one order of Prototheria, i.e. : 



14. Monotremes (Monotremata), including only three living genera — the Duck- 

 Mole (Ornithorhynchus), found in Australia and Tasmania (fig. 39); the 

 Spiny Ant-Eater {Echidna) of Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea; 

 and the Spiny-tongued Ant-Eater (Proechidna), limited to the last-named 

 island. 



Fig. 39. — Duck-billed Platypus or Duck-Mole {JDniithorhynchus paradoxus). 



Order i. — Man and Monkeys (Primates) 



I. Man. — Human beings are distinguished from all other 

 Primates by the possession of vastly superior mental powers, but 

 when structural features are regarded there is no marked difference, 

 and every organ found in a man exists equally in an ape. The 

 human brain, however, in correlation with the human intellect, 

 is very much larger than that of any ape, and the convolutions of 

 its hemispheres are much more complex. This is true for the 

 lowest savage equally with the genius. Man, again, is the only- 

 Mammal to which the erect posture is easy and habitual, and we 

 accordingly find that the lower limbs are specially modified with 

 a view to the maintenance of this position. And as compared 

 with the highest apes, the human upper limbs are comparatively 

 short, and adapted to perform the most delicate manipulations. 



