Haggis Hunt

Evidently, there exists more than one species of non-australian monotreme, a fact that i was hitherto unaware. As a matter of fact, the Balblair Stotch Wiskey company has an entire website devoted to the little beast. The first extant (extinct ones don't count) non-australian monotreme is the Easter Platypus of North America. The second, the one that I've only just found out about is the Haggis of Scottland. Haggis also happens to be a dish of meat and oatmeal stuffed into the innards of a sheep, but the resemblance to the primitive mammal ends with the size and general roundness. The Haggis differs from the Easter platypus in retaining the ancestrally flattened rostrom. This is quite contrary to what one would expect from the etymology of the name of our North American monotreme, since platypus literally means "flat faced." Contrary to some early speculation, neither non-australian monotreme bears any close relation to Rhinogrades, which are completely different. I suspect that all extant monotremes form a monophyletic group, which should also include the fossil Obdurodon.