Digestive tract and digestive function in monotremes and nonmacropod marsupials

摘要

Owen (1868) was one of the first to describe the general anatomy of the digestive tracts of the monotremes and of several nonmacropod marsupial species. Subsequently MacKenzie (1918) provided a more detailed descrip-tion of the digestive tracts of both platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) and echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), and of members of the marsupial families Dasyuridae (Tasmanian devil), Peramelidae (bandicoots), Vombatidae (wom-bat), Phascolarctidae (koala), and Phalangeridae (Trichosurus and Pseudochei-rus). However, information on the digestive function and nutrition of the nonmacropod marsupials is only now being accumulated. The little we know about the nutrition of the monotremes is due almost entirely to the efforts of Griffiths (1968, 1978).