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Platypuses: Ancestral or more primitive if compared to mammals that bear live young?

Submitted by nalexandroum on Wed, 01/30/2019 - 13:36

It is not correct to use the term "ancestral" to describe platypuses relative to mammals that bear live young because although they share a common ancestor platypuses diverged into a separate group before the mammals that bear live young evolved to acquire the trait. Platypuses can however be described as being "more primitive", because they have gone through far fewer evolutionary changes than the mammals that bear live young have. 

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