Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various egg-laying mammals of the order Monotremata of Australia and New Guinea, whose only living members are the platypus and the echidnas.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same as
monotrematous : as, monotreme mammals; a monotreme egg. - noun A member of the Monotremata, as a duck-mole or prickly ant-eater.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) One of the Monotremata.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun zoology A mammal that lays eggs and has a single
urogenital anddigestive orifice . Only theechidnas andplatypuses are included in this group. - adjective palynology, of a pollen grain Having a single
trema , or aperture
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the most primitive mammals comprising the only extant members of the subclass Prototheria
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The word monotreme combines the Greek words, μονο and τρεμα, for one and hole.
Archive 2006-09-01 2006
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The word monotreme combines the Greek words, μονο and τρεμα, for one and hole.
Monotremata 2006
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No, the label monotreme refers to the order of mammals which lay eggs.
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A 15 million-year-old complete skull and nearly complete dentition of the monotreme Obdurodon dicksoni has already provided a great deal of new information about this highly distinctive group of mammals.
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Descriptions of the skull and non-vestigial dentition of a Miocene platypus (Obdurodon dicksoni n. sp.) from Riversleigh, Australia, and the problem of monotreme origins.
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But what the newly sequenced genome reveals is that the platypus's male-determining gene, the monotreme equivalent of primates' SRY gene, is not located on any of those five pairs of sex chromosomes.
Archive 2008-05-01 2008
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If moving from monotreme dreams to 'treme genes leaves you hungry for more information on Ornithorhynchus anatinus, reread this old Jurisdynamics post, Monotremata. posted by Jim Chen at 1:46 AM
Archive 2008-05-01 2008
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June 4, 2008 at 11:54 am iz nawt mammul. iz….sumfin elze. big wurd. monotreme? sumfin liek dat.
oh mai! - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008
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If moving from monotreme dreams to 'treme genes leaves you hungry for more information on Ornithorhynchus anatinus, reread this old Jurisdynamics post, Monotremata. posted by Jim Chen at 1:46 AM
The platypus genome 2008
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But what the newly sequenced genome reveals is that the platypus's male-determining gene, the monotreme equivalent of primates' SRY gene, is not located on any of those five pairs of sex chromosomes.
The platypus genome 2008
chained_bear commented on the word monotreme
I learned this word a minute ago on the platypus page.
March 7, 2008
seanahan commented on the word monotreme
Note that one needs to be careful with the use of primitive in this context. WordNet is not.
March 8, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word monotreme
Seen in NYTimes today, a great article from which one sentence really popped out at me:
"Yet through that uni-perforation, a male echnida can extrude a four-headed penis."
Followed immediately by, "However they conduct their affairs, monotremes do it remarkably well."
—Natalie Angier, "Brainy Echidna Proves Looks Aren’t Everything," New York Times, June 8, 2009
June 10, 2009
bilby commented on the word monotreme
Australian know-how ;-)
June 10, 2009
yarb commented on the word monotreme
Strewth!
Who wants to coin an adjective meaning "able to extrude a four-headed penis"?
June 10, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word monotreme
LOL, bilby!
...except this particular species lives in New Guinea! ;)
I think the Australian native species (are they called "short-beaked"?) are rather cuter. *fondly remembers meeting an Australian echidna many years ago*
June 10, 2009
reesetee commented on the word monotreme
Did you see the caption on the accompanying photo (drawn from the main text)? It sounds like it came from a Gary Larson cartoon:
"Muse Opiang was working as a field research officer when he became seized by a passion for the long-beaked echidna."
:-)
June 10, 2009