This class of animals represents a number of different families, genera, and species. The animals that belong to this order are mammals, but they have a uniqueness that differentiates them, since they are also oviparous (their procreation is through incubated eggs).
Monotremes (from the Greek monkeys μονός "simple" + τρῆμα trema "hole", referring to the cloaca) are mammals that lay eggs (Prototheria) instead of giving birth to live young, such as marsupials (Metatheria) and placental mammals (Eutheria). This means; that monotremes are organisms that have an orifice known as the cloaca, where the digestive, urinary and reproductive tracts converge. Examples of monotremes are: platypus and echidnas.
This uniqueness makes the animals integrated in that order very different from all the others.
The monotremata order refers to monotreme animals, a term that comes from the Greek and is formed by “monkey”, which means one, and by “trema”, which means orifice.
The Australian echidna is a small animal that is part of mammals and monotremats, has hair, has abundant spines to protect itself from predators and sweats milk. When the young hatch from the egg, they lick the milk that the women sweat. With its elongated, horn-like beak, it searches for insects and termites in forest litter. It is a solitary animal and when it feels threatened, it is protected by rolling its body and its spines are directed towards its aggressors. There are currently only two species of echidnas and their only close relative is the platypus.
Like the rest of the mammals, they are warm- blooded animals. However, his body temperature is slightly lower than the rest. On the other hand, they lack mammary glands, which are replaced by another type of glands, the sweat glands.
In the wild, these animals are only found in the territories of Australia and New Guinea. Millions of years ago there were monotremes in South America, but they became extinct naturally.
