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The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypic taxon of its family Ornithorhynchidae and genus Ornithorhynchus, though a number of related species appear in the fossil record. Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. [6]
Unless you live in Australia, the only place you can see a platypus in action is at the zoo. In the wild, they live near freshwater creeks and rivers across east and south-eastern Australia.
Rheobatrachus, whose members are known as the gastric-brooding frogs or platypus frogs, is a genus of extinct ground-dwelling frogs native to Queensland in eastern Australia. The genus consisted of only two species, the southern and northern gastric-brooding frogs, both of which became extinct in the mid-1980s.
At 33 °C (91.4 °F), echidnas also possess the second-lowest active body temperature of all mammals, behind the platypus. Despite their appearance, echidnas are capable swimmers, as they evolved from platypus-like ancestors. When swimming, they expose their snout and some of their spines, and are known to journey to water to bathe. [9]
Researchers saw the white platypus 10 times between February 2021 and July 2023, the study said. Several short videos show the rare animal floating along the surface of the river before quickly ...
The world's largest platypus conservation centre has welcomed its first residents as part of a project to protect the semi-aquatic mammal found only in Australia amid threats to its habitat from ...
The platypus has an average body temperature of about 31 °C (88 °F) rather than the averages of 35 °C (95 °F) for marsupials and 37 °C (99 °F) for placentals. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] Research suggests this has been a gradual adaptation to the harsh, marginal environmental niches in which the few extant monotreme species have managed to survive ...
Male platypuses have sharp spurs on their back legs shaped like a canine tooth. These hollow spurs measure 0.59 to 0.71 inches long and connect to crural glands in the animal’s upper thighs.