Talk:Alphadon

[Untitled]

I thought the Latin word for first was primus. Georgia guy 00:44, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

contradiction

According to the corresponding wikipedia articles the infraclass Marsupials and the subclass Prototheria are mutally exclusive. Marsupials are Metatheria which belong to the subclass Theria. The Alphadon cannot be both a marsupial and a prototherium. I don't know which classification is correct, otherwise I would have been bolder and changed it. Sluzzelin 02:47, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

It's a metatherian. Whoever wrote this seems to have some very, very odd ideas about what "prototherian" means. ("The first primate was also a prototherian"????) I cleaned it up and gutted the errors. 75.32.189.88 14:56, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

what exactly is a Prototherian

i am the writer of this article. im 12 years old, and i wanted to know what exactly a prototherian is. Ipepper 21:08, 25 January 2007 (UTC)Ipepper

Prototheria are a particular group (called subclass) of mammals, to which the living species platypus and echidna belong. They don't give live birth to their young, but lay shelled eggs instead. All other living mammal species do give live birth to their young and belong to the subclass Theria, which is further divided into two groups, called infraclasses: The first infraclass is called Marsupialia (or Metatheria, if you include their extinct ancestors), animals such as the kangaroo or the wombat, who give live births but rear their young in pouches (or marsupia). The second infraclass is called Eutheria or Placentalia, and includes all other living mammal species. Most mammal species belong to this second group: for instance, cats, dogs, bats, rats, elephants, dolphins, human beings ... So, an animal can't be a marsupial (or metatherium, for all practical purposes) and prototherium at the same time, just like it can't be a bird and a fish (or a bird and a shark) at the same time. user:75.32.189.88 resolved it, the alphadon is a metatherium. ---Sluzzelin 02:02, 26 January 2007 (UTC)