In 2014, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) deemed the platypus “near-threatened.” The animals live in freshwater wetlands along Australia’s east coast (including Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales).

The platypus is considered “near-threatened.” A female platypus also uses her tail to hold incubating eggs against her warm body. Most of the time, the primary function of the platypus’s tail is just to store up to nearly half of the animal's body fat in case of a food shortage. Unlike beavers, which have very visually similar tails, platypuses don’t use their tails to slap the water in warning, or even to move them through the water. Platypuses use their tails for all sorts of things. The platypus packs it all into pouches in his cheek to carry it up to the surface where it munches away, using the bits of gravel as makeshift teeth to break up tougher food. Along with worms, insects, shellfish, and whatever else these bottom-feeders scoop up to make a meal out of, the platypus also picks up gravel from the riverbed. Platypuses don’t have teeth inside their bill, which makes it difficult to chew some of their favorite foods-but they have worked out a pretty ingenious solution. Platypuses use gravel as makeshift teeth. One of the most remarkable and weird aspects of the platypus-its ability to lay eggs-wasn’t discovered for another 100 years. “It naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means,” zoologist George Shaw wrote in the first scientific description of the platypus, published in 1799.

When the first platypus specimen was sent back to England from Australia in the late 18th century, the scientists who examined it thought that someone was playing a trick on them. Male platypuses have venomous spurs.Ī taxidermied platypus. The babies drink it up by sucking it out the folds of their mother's skin, or her fur. Instead, their milk is released out of mammary gland ducts on their abdomen. Female platypuses, however, don’t have nipples. Platypuses nurse without nipples.Īlthough platypuses are born out of leathery eggs, the babies nurse from their mother. In 2008, scientists deciphered the entire DNA of the duck-billed platypus and determined that, in accordance with the animal’s somewhat bizarre appearance, the platypus shared genes with reptiles, birds, and mammals. These egg-laying mammals get their name from the hole that serves as both an anus and a urino-genital opening. Platypuses are one of only five species of extant monotremes-just them and four species of echidna-which split from the rest of the mammals 166 million years ago. The platypus is a monotreme-which means “single hole” in Greek.

Platypuses are no different: In 2013, the discovery of a single tooth helped researchers identify a prehistoric platypus that was more than three feet long-double the size of the modern animal. The ancient versions of a lot of modern animals, including penguins, were oversized monsters compared to the animals we know today. It’s so sensitive that the platypus can hunt with its eyes, ears, and nose all closed, relying entirely on the bill’s electrolocation. Jason Edwards/Photodisc/Getty ImagesĪ platypus’s bill has thousands of cells that give it a sort of sixth sense, allowing them to detect the electric fields generated by all living things. The platypus’s bill gives it a sixth sense.

Platypus facts book