Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypic taxon of its family Ornithorhynchidae and genus Ornithorhynchus , though a number of related species appear ...
They are the only group of living mammals that lay eggs, rather than bearing live young. The extant monotreme species are the platypus and the four species of echidnas. Monotremes are typified by structural differences in their brains, jaws, digestive tract, reproductive tract, and other body parts, compared to the more common mammalian types.
Monotremes differ from other mammals because they lay eggs instead of giving birth. There are only five species of monotremes, and they include the platypus and four species of echidnas (spiny ...
Echidnas and platypuses are the only egg-laying mammals, the monotremes. The average lifespan of an echidna in the wild is estimated at 14–16 years. Fully grown females can weigh about 4.5 kilograms (9.9 lb), the males 33% larger, at about 6 kilograms (13 lb). [12]
The platypus doesn’t fit into any particular category: it’s a mammal, but it lays eggs like a reptile. It has a duck-like bill and webbed feet, but its otter-like body ends with.
A replica of a platypus nest with eggs. Penelope made headlines when she began behaving like an expectant mother, as she would have been the first platypus to lay a litter of eggs away from the species' homeland of Australia. Zookeepers became certain that Penelope was guarding young in the mound of dirt where she lived.
The class Mammalia is divided into two subclasses based on reproductive techniques: egg-laying mammals (yinotherians or monotremes - see also Australosphenida), and mammals which give live birth . The latter subclass is divided into two infraclasses: pouched mammals ( metatherians or marsupials ), and placental mammals ( eutherians , for which ...
The egg is not retained in the body for most of the period of development of the embryo within the egg, which is the main distinction between oviparity and ovoviviparity. [1] Oviparity occurs in all birds, most reptiles, some fishes, and most arthropods. Among mammals, monotremes (four species of echidna, and the platypus) are uniquely oviparous.