Overview
The ontogeny of the tympanic and otic regions of the head of Ornithorhynchus anatinus was studied in serial sections of fifteen stages and compared with Tachyglossus (Monotremata) and therian mammals. Recent monotremes retain a number of synapsid plesiomorphies in the middle ear. These include the absence of a caput mallei, the synostosis between praearticulare and tympanicum, the columelliform stapes, the presence of a secondary tympanic membrane at the lateral aperture of the recessus scalae tympani, and the absence of a bulla tympanica. In addition, Ornithorhynchus retains the plesiomorphic synapsid condition in that the foramen perilymphaticum and recessus scalae tympani are close to the cranial base; a processus recessus and an aquaeductus cochleae are lacking. Besides these plesiomorphies, Ornithorhynchus shares with Tachyglossus the following derived characters: The incus lies medial to the malleus, the tympanicum is nearly horizontal, the stapes is not penetrated by the a. stapedia, the ductus cochlearis is elongated rostromedially into the cranial base and, in contrast to the Theria, does not form a cochlea. Among mammals, these characters can be regarded as synapomorphic for the Monotremata. Monotremes resemble therians in having three middle ear ossicles, which, in the adults, together with praearticulare and tympanicum, are separate from the jaw apparatus. In both groups the praearticulare forms the anterior process (folii) of the malleus, and the tympanicum is the frame for the tympanic membrane. Therefore, a high degree of separation of the angulare, articulare, and praearticulare from the lower jaw between the praearticulare and dentale, significant in the transmission of airborne sound, is likely to have been present in the common ancestor of all Recent mammals. Other shared derived characters (synapomorphies) of monotremes and therians are the squamoso-dentary jaw joint and the m. tensor tympani. Recent Mammalia, therefore, form a monophyletic group. The morphogenesis of the head does not provide evidence for close phylogenetic relationships among the Monotremata, Triconodonta, Multituberculata, or Pantotheria. The available evidence suggests that the dichotomy of the phyletic lines leading to monotremes and therians occurred well before the origin of Eupantotheria.
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Zeller, U. (1993). Ontogenetic Evidence for Cranial Homologies in Monotremes and Therians, with Special Reference to Ornithorhynchus . In: Szalay, F.S., Novacek, M.J., McKenna, M.C. (eds) Mammal Phylogeny. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9249-1_8
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