Page:The Last link.djvu/77

Rh Triassic and from the Jurassic strata have without much doubt to be referred to the Prototheria. The Prototheria are typical mammals, because they possess the following characteristics: The heart is completely quadrilocular; the blood is warm, and its red corpuscles have, owing to the loss of their nucleus, been modified from biconvex into biconcave discs; they have a hairy coat and sweat glands, and two occipital condyles; the ilio-sacral connection is preacetabular; the ankle-joint is cruro-tarsal; the quadrate bone of the Reptilia has ceased to carry the under jaw, which now articulates directly with the squamosal portion of the skull. Their low position is shown by the retention of the following reptilian features: Complete coracoid bones and a T-shaped interclavicle; a cloaca, or common chamber for the passage of the fæces, the genital and the urinary products; they are still oviparous; the embryo develops without a chorion, and is therefore not nourished through a placenta. Even the