An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinctLydekker, Richard
Science
An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct
Lydekker, Richard
Mammals
In the structure of the brain and the presence of epipubic bones they
agree with the Prototheria, while in the structure of the ear-bones and
the shoulder-girdle and the presence of teats on the mammary glands they
resemble the Eutheria, the reproductive organs belonging to neither
one nor the other type, but having a special character representing an
intermediate grade of development. The ureters open into the base of
the bladder. The oviducts are differentiated into uterine and Fallopian
portions, and open into a long and distinct vagina, quite separate from
the cystic urethra. The penis is large, but its crura are not directly
attached to the ischia. The spongy body has a large bifurcated bulb.
The young are born in an exceedingly rudimentary condition, and are
never nourished by means of an allantoic placenta, but are transferred
to the nipple of the mother, to which they remain firmly attached for
a considerable time, nourished by the milk injected into the mouth by
compression of the muscle covering the mammary gland. They are therefore
the most typically mammalian of the whole class. The nipples are nearly
always concealed in a fold of the abdominal integument or “pouch”
(marsupium) which serves to support and protect the young in their early
helpless condition.
Entering more fully into the characters of the subclass, which are
also those of the order Marsupialia, it may be observed that the brain
is generally small in proportion to the size of the animal, and the
surface-folding of the cerebral hemispheres, though well marked in the
larger species, is never very complex in character, and is absent in the
medium-sized and smaller species. The arrangement of the folding of the
inner wall of the cerebrum differs essentially from that of all known
Eutheria, the hippocampal fissure being continued forward above the
corpus callosum, which is of very small size. The anterior commissure is,
on the other hand, greatly developed.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.—Teeth of upper jaw of Opossum (_Didelphys
marsupialis_), all of which are unchanged, except the last premolar, the
place of which is occupied in the young animal by a molariform tooth,
represented in the figure below the line of the other teeth.]
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