![]() With a bill, webbed feet, and behaviors such as egg laying and producing venom that defy the norms of any other known mammal, it is not hard to see how the platypus eluded recognition from European naturalists, who had only just begun to observe and categorize the unique fauna found in Australia. Shaw himself had initially believed the specimen to be a hoax consisting of body parts from different animals, sewn together to create a semblance of an extraordinary creature. When 18th-century zoologist George Shaw published the first scientific description of a platypus, many of his contemporaries did not believe that the animal was real. © Hans and Judy Besage-Mary Evans Picture Library Ltd/age fotostock SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.By 4 or 5 months old, the baby is ready to learn how to swim. It will nurse with its mother in a protective pouch for a few months and eventually get moved to a burrow as it grows older. She will typically only lay one to three eggs.Ī baby platypus, known as a puggle, is hairless and about the size of a human hand when it's born. When the female prepares to lay her eggs, she goes off to a secluded den by herself to wait out the process. These animals are ready to mate at two years of age and often have more than one partner in their lifetime. They often travel along the bottom of a riverbed and dig through the sediment in search of things to eat. Platypuses feed on small aquatic animals and locate their food by using their highly sensitive snouts. While it can harm smaller animals, it will not kill a human. Interestingly, they can produce venom from the spurs in their feet. The streamlined design of their bodies allows them to move gracefully in and under the water, where they live most of the time. With its distinct duck-like bill, this fascinating creature is found in Tasmania and Australia. They can spend over 10 hours a night hunting for food which consists of small animals like shrimp and crayfish. ![]() Rivers and waterways are the natural habiat for the platypus, which is also nocturnal. Most of their activity happens at night when they dig for ants, termites, and other small invertebrates using their highly adapted sense of smell. The echidnas, who use their fur as camouflage, spend most of the day hiding in fallen trees or empty burrows. ![]() ![]() They are all quite elusive, so little is known about their daily habits and mating rituals. Monotremes are only found in either Australia or New Guinea. Only five species of animals share this extraordinary egg-laying trait: the duck-billed platypus, and four echidna species, the western long-beaked echidna, eastern long-beaked echidna, short-beaked echidna, and Sir David's long-beaked echidna. In the scientific world, this is called a monotreme the two other types of mammals - placentals and marsupials - reproduce through live births. They are mammals that lay eggs and feed milk to their babies (or puggles as they're known). The following creatures all share a unique characteristic. ![]()
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