In defense of my contrarian point of view, I note that it was once believed that egg-laying mammals (monotremes), such as the spiny anteater and the duck-billed platypus, did not have REM sleep. It turned out that they do, or at least a version of it. The outer surface of their brain—the cortex—from which most scientists measure sleeping brainwaves, does not exhibit the choppy, chaotic characteristics of REM-sleep activity. But when scientists looked a little deeper, beautiful bursts of REM-sleep electrical brainwave activity were found at the base of the brain—waves that are a perfect match
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