The evolution of man : a popular exposition of the principal points of human ontogeny and phylogeny . subterraneandwellings on the banks: this is the well-known Duck-billed Platypus {Omithorhynchas paradoxus): it is web-footed, has a thick, soft skin, and broad, flat jaws, whichvery much resemble a ducks bill (Figs. 195, 196). Theother form, the Porcupine Ant-eater {Echidna hystvix), muchresembles the Ant-eaters, in its mode of life, in the cha-racteristic form of its slender snout, and in the great lengthof its tongue; it is covered with prickles, and can roll itselfup into a ball like a hedg
The evolution of man : a popular exposition of the principal points of human ontogeny and phylogeny . subterraneandwellings on the banks: this is the well-known Duck-billed Platypus {Omithorhynchas paradoxus): it is web-footed, has a thick, soft skin, and broad, flat jaws, whichvery much resemble a ducks bill (Figs. 195, 196). Theother form, the Porcupine Ant-eater {Echidna hystvix), muchresembles the Ant-eaters, in its mode of life, in the cha-racteristic form of its slender snout, and in the great lengthof its tongue; it is covered with prickles, and can roll itselfup into a ball like a hedgehog. Neither of these extantBeaked Animals possesses true bony teeth, and, in thispoint, they resemble the Toothless Mammals {Edentata).The absence of teeth, together with other peculiarities ofthe Ornithostomata, is probably the result of comparativelyrecent adaptation. Those extinct Cloacal Animals whichembraced the parent-forms of the whole Mammalian class,the Promammalia, must certainly have been provided witha developed set of teeth, inherited from Some 148 THE EVOLUTION OF Fig. 195.—The Duck-billed Platy-pus (Ornitliorhynchus paradoxus).Fig. 196.—Skeleton of Platypus.
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Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectembryologyhuman
