Nice story. I've always had a sweet tooth when it comes to Cadbury's
chocolate. Does this mean that Cadbury will introduce a line of "Caramello
Kryoryctes" alongside the traditional "Caramello Koala"? :-)
In their paper in Journal of Mammalian Evolution, the authors baulk at the
idea that _Kryoryctes_ is actually a Cretaceous echidna (Tachyglossidae) and
"covered with quills, and toothless" (as the National Geographic article
says). Instead, Pridmore et al. (2005) are more cautious, saying: "On the
basis of comparisons with Mesozoic and Cainozoic mammalian taxa in which
humeral morphology is known, the Dinosaur Cove humerus is tentatively
attributed to a monotreme. However, several apparently primitive features
of the bone exclude the animal concerned from the extant families
Tachyglossidae and Ornithorhynchidae and suggest that, if it is a monotreme,
it is a stem-group monotreme."
It was my impression that the tachyglossid-like nature of the humerus is due
more to the fossorial nature it suggests for _Kryoryctes_ than any close
relationships to the echidnas. It could be due to both; but it's not even
clear that _Kryoryctes_ is a monotreme/prototherian. It would be great if
echidnas were around in the Cretaceous - unless of course you were a small
dinosaur living in the same habitat (stepping on an echidna is not something
you would want to do).