Common knowledge - Mammals

finchie · 241411. Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:32 pm

In Episode 3 - 'common knowledge' - Jimmy Carr points out that "all the indigenous mammals in Australasia are marsupials," and Steven Fry answers saying that they "are therefore not mammals." I thought that marsupials belonged to the Class Mammalia (Subclass Theria, Infraclass Metatheria), as do the Eutheria (Subclass Theria, Infraclass Eutheria) and the Monotremata (Subclass Prototheria), and so were therefore actually mammals. Is this not correct?

Flash · 241412. Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:42 pm

You're right, this was a cock-up on the part of the show. We have repented elsewhere on these boards - the search function should link to other threads on the subject.

MinervaMoon · 241414. Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:42 pm

You are very right; this is a fact discussed as early as 2005 here and here and here and here and here. And, of course, here.

finchie · 241415. Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:44 pm

Thankyou muchly - being a biologist I thought I should find out :) and also being new to the site I didn't find the other references, so thanks for pointing them out :)

djgordy · 241422. Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:11 pm

Actually there is one mammal indigenous to Australia which is neither a marsupial nor a monotreme and which doesn't seem to have been mentioned on any of the other threads: the dugong or sea-cow.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/readman/dugong.htm

finchie · 241530. Sat Dec 08, 2007 7:33 am

That is true, Sirenia are Eutherian mammals that are not marsupials. However the ancestor of the modern sirenians was found in Jamaica, and there is an absence in the fossil record of Australia from the Tertiary period which suggests that they were not present there until relatively recently. So they may not have evolved there, just colonised it later on.

djgordy · 241606. Sat Dec 08, 2007 11:48 am

That is probably true. However, "indigenous" is usually taken as meaning "not introduced by humans" or something similar. If an animal from one territory colonises another by natural means, even if it didn't evolve in that territory, then it would be considered as indigenous.

samivel · 241622. Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:12 pm

What about whales?

finchie · 241740. Sat Dec 08, 2007 9:10 pm

True. So they are indigenous, but not endemic, to Australia.

finchie · 241742. Sat Dec 08, 2007 9:14 pm