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• n  the most primitive mammals comprising the only extant members of the subclass Prototheria

• The marsupials kept the pouch (in which the echidna, another monotreme, had carried its eggs) ; but marsupials bore their young alive, thus rating as genuine mammals.

• egg-laying mammal

News & Articles

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• 'Platypus-zilla' fossil found
  About the size of a child, the largest-known platypus roamed what is now Australia as far back as 15 million years ago, according to newfound fossil remains of the giant monotreme.
  Nov. 5, 2013 - Fox News
• Fossil of Largest Platypus Discovered in Australia
  About the size of a child, the largest-known platypus roamed what is now Australia as far back as 15 million years ago, according to newfound fossil remains of the giant monotreme. A team of paleontologists from the University of New South Wales in Australia identified the new species, called Obdurodon tharalkooschild, based on a single molar they discovered in the Riversleigh fossil field in ...
  Nov. 4, 2013 - LiveScience.com via Yahoo! News
• Ancient Platypus Tooth ID'd As Extinct, Newly Discovered Species
  The platypus seems like it was assembled by nature after a late night out, using a box of leftover parts. It belongs to the monotremes, an odd little family of egg-laying mammals that includes just one other family – the echidnas. Now, in a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers describe a previously unknown species of extinct platypus that lived somewhere ...
  Nov. 4, 2013 - International Business Times