Re: Battat's hair; Prototheria

[FEUKAC@PLU.edu]

On Thu, 15 Jun 1995 Flyinggoat@aol.com wrote:

> >Monotreme mommas make milk--how can they
> >not be mammals?
> 
>    As I understand it, they (spiny anteaters, echindas, and platypuses) don't
> have a special gland in one spot on their bodies such as a mammary gland, but
> rather they "sweat" a milk-like equivalent out of tiny gland spread all over
> their bodies like pores (which the babies lap up rather than nurse).
>    No breasts=not a mammal
>    Now how would you prove therapsids did it one way or another?

  Off on a different line, what about mourning doves they produce milk 
through the tops of there heads, is this a totally seperatly derived or, 
could it possibly be an ancestral synapomorphy. Did the protomammals 
produce milk( I don't expect that there's any paleo-evidence),( somehow I 
have a hard time picturing a T. rex with mammary glands,or milk sweating off 
the top of the head.) Are there any other birds that produce milk? Any 
ideas??? ;)

Aaron Feuk
Preparator,Dept.of Earth Sciences 
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, Wa,98447
 > Betty Cunningham(Flyinggoat@aol.com) >