Development of the Olfactory Pathways in Platypus and Echidna

The two groups of living monotremes (platypus and echidnas) have remarkably different olfactory structures in the adult. The layers of the main olfactory bulb of the short-beaked echidna are extensively folded, whereas those of the platypus are not. Similarly, the surface area of the piriform cortex of the echidna is large and its lamination complex, whereas in the platypus it is small and simple. It has been argued that the modern echidnas are derived from a platypus-like ancestor, in which case the extensive olfactory specializations of the modern echidnas would have developed relatively recently in monotreme evolution. In this study, the development of the constituent structures of the olfactory pathway was studied in sectioned platypus and echidna embryos and post-hatchlings at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany. The aim was to determine whether the olfactory structures follow a similar maturational path in the two monotremes during embryonic and early post-hatching ages or whether they show very different developmental paths from the outset. The findings indicate that anatomical differences in the central olfactory system between the short-beaked echidna and the platypus begin to develop immediately before hatching, although details of differences in nasal cavity architecture emerge progressively during late post-hatching life. These findings are most consistent with the proposition that the two modern monotreme lineages have followed independent evolutionary paths from a less olfaction-specialized ancestor. The monotreme olfactory pathway does not appear to be sufficiently structurally mature at birth to allow olfaction-mediated behaviour, because central components of both the main and accessory olfactory system have not differentiated at the time of hatching.