First discovery of monotremes in South America

PASCUAL, ROSENDO; ARCHER, MICHAEL; ORTIZ JAUREGUIZAR, EDGARDO; PRADO, JOSÉ LUIS; GODTHELP, HENK; HAND, SUZANNE J.

NATURE

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

Lugar: Londres; Año: 1992 vol. 356 p. 704 - 705

0028-0836

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 ornithorhynchid, 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.