Steropodon-+Tommy+Kim

Steropodon- Steropodon Galmani
 * Ancient Animal**

**Modern Animal** The echidna- Tachyglossus Aculeatus.

Sloth Echidna- Tachyglossus Semper __The Steropodon__ The steropodon- Steropodon Galmani This is believed to he the echidna's extinct ancestor. The steropodon is the first monotreme that crawled on this earth. The earliest fossils dating back to millions of years ago, and the steropodon's is the oldest. Scientists believe that the steropodon is the ancestor to all monotremes on this planet. They have been around from the mesozoic era and did not extinct, they simply adapted to the environment, is what is believed.
 * Future Animal**

**Habitat**
The steropodon lived around Australia and New Guinea in one big continent call Gondwana. Located not very far from where Australia is located now, the year round temperature is very similar to that of Australia today. Also, a much lager part of australia’s landmass was covered in water so the steropodon would have lived in quite humid and hot area, with lots of reptiles around predating on them. They would have lived near the water streams. The steropodon was thought to have stayed in burrows, for fear of any of their predators coming. There are no specific known predators, but it is believed that some scavenger dinosaurs would have stolen their eggs, and both water and land based large to medium sized reptiles may have feasted on this animal. They would have been nocturnal, just like marsupials today.

**Adaptations**
**Webbed feet- Structural** The webbed feet on the steropodon would have helped on the survival of the steropodon. The steropodon is the closest relative to the platypus.The webbed feet would have helped the steropodon in swimming as the webs will increase the water being pushed back, and when the feet are folded, they are instantly less resistant. The steropodon would have eaten fishes and crustaceans, and they would have caught them by swimming and catching them with their mouth. The webbed feet would have been crucial to the survival of the steropodon because its main diet are all found in the water, and its environment would have required it to swim a lot as it is swamps and humid grounds.

**Teeth- Structural** The steropodon had an unusual set of strong jaws, to catch its prey with. Perhaps because it has to ingest things with hard exoskeleton like crustaceans. The steropodon had three lower molar teeth well developed, so it would be much easier to crush the hard exoskeleton with its strong molars.These molars are much more like mammals in the fact that they have two deep roots, unlike platypus’ shallow, multiple roots. This would have helped the survival of the strepodon since it would have been much easier to ingest its prey and gives it much more of an advantage in mechanical digestion.

**Warm Blooded- Physiological** The steropodon, as a monotreme, is also warm blooded. Warm blooded animals such as the steropodon is able to keep itself warm in the cold, and able to cool itself down in the heat. This also means that there will be a lot of energy going in to keep them in the same temperature. A very small amount of what the steropodon eats would have been converted to body mass, and most of it will be used to fuel the constant body temperature. This helped the survival of the steropodon in many reasons. Being warm blooded, the strepodon is able to move around in cold temperatures where cold blooded animals simply would be frozen to death.This would have been quite useful when they would hunt underwater, and temperatures can go down quite a bit so it helps a lot to be able to control the temperature of its body. Though the steropodon is believed to be inactive during winters, hibernating, nonetheless, it would have been useful since they would have had to keep themselves warm even with the low metabolism, and they would have had to be warm blooded in order for them to be able to sleep without the worry of freezing to death.

**Laying Eggs- Physiological** A feature the steropodon also has, is laying eggs. Obviously, because it is a monotreme. It lays eggs and cares for its children. This is a very good advantage for the steropodon since it doesn’t have to be pregnant, the mother is able care for herself more. Being pregnant slows down the mother a lot, as it has to carry herself and her child. Being able to lay eggs is a very good advantage for the steropodon since the mother will have to swim to find food and being able to leave the egg alone for a while means a bigger survival rate for the child and for the mother. A disadvantage however of laying eggs, is that there are many reptiles that are out scavenging eggs, perhaps this is why the monotremes care for their children, which is the next adaptation that will be discussed.

**Caring for its children- Behavioral** The steropodon was a monotreme, and so, it cared for its young till they were independent. Though not much is known about the behavior of the steropodon in development of its young, it can be deduced that the steropodon would have let suckled its young. The much improved methods of caring for its young, unlike dinosaurs that lived in its age, may have been the single reason why the steropodon had such a successful survival during the Mesozoic age, since it is extremely smart to let the children be able to be more competent by itself before letting them roam around free and being the easiest target for predators.