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First discovery of monotremes in South America

Nature volume 356, pages 704–706 (1992)Cite this article

Abstract

UNTIL now, the egg-laying monotremes were only known from the Australian continent, where they have lived since the early Cretaceous period to the present1. Here we report the first monotreme from outside the Australian continent, an ornithorhyn-chid, from sediments of late early Palaeocene age in Patagonia, southern Argentina. This discovery demonstrates the Gondwanan nature of monotremes and supports the hypothesis that the Patagonian Terrane of southern South America had a biotic history distinct from that of the rest of the continent.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento Cientifico Paleontologia Vertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque, 1900, La Plata, Argentina

    Rosendo Pascual, Edgardo Ortiz Jaureguizar & José L. Prado

  2. School of Biological Science, University of New South Wales, PO Box 1, Kensington, New South Wales, 2033, Australia

    Michael Archer, Henk Godthelp & Suzanne J. Hand

Authors
  1. Rosendo Pascual
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  2. Michael Archer
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  3. Edgardo Ortiz Jaureguizar
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  4. José L. Prado
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  5. Henk Godthelp
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  6. Suzanne J. Hand
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Pascual, R., Archer, M., Jaureguizar, E. et al. First discovery of monotremes in South America. Nature 356, 704–706 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/356704a0

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