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Prototheria
Sign in to savePrototheria (, ; from Ancient Greek "first" and "wild animal") is an obsolete subclass of mammals which includes the living Monotremata and to which a variety of extinct groups, including Morganucodonta, Docodonta, Triconodonta and Multituberculata, have also been assigned. It is today no longer considered a valid grouping, but rather a paraphyletic evolutionary grade of basal mammals and mammaliaform cynodonts.
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- Prototheria
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Prototheria (, ; from Ancient Greek "first" and "wild animal") is an obsolete subclass of mammals which includes the living Monotremata and to which a variety of extinct groups, including Morganucodonta, Docodonta, Triconodonta and Multituberculata, have also been assigned. It is today no longer considered a valid grouping, but rather a paraphyletic evolutionary grade of basal mammals and mammaliaform cynodonts.
Most of the animals in this group are extinct. The egg-laying monotremes are known from fossils of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic periods; they are represented today by the platypus and four species of echidna.