All animals possess unique features that make them stand out, certain distinguishing features that set them apart from other animals and make them easily recognizable.
However, this is not accurate for the Platypus. A fish has gills and scales.
A bird has wings and a beak, and a snake has a forked tongue and slithers about.
It is not uncommon to see two different animals possess the same distinguishing features.
For instance, a lion and a horse both have a mane. What is surprising is that the platypus possesses up to four unique features that are unique to different animals.
The Platypus has a duck’s bill, the feet of an otter, the tail of a beaver, and lays eggs.
Monotremes are one of the only mammals known to have a sense of electroreception: they locate their prey partly by detecting electric fields produced by muscular contractions.
The Platypus’s electroreception is the most sensitive of any monotreme.
Scientific Classification
- Domain: Eukaryota
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Monotremata
- Family: Ornithorhynchidae
- Genus: O. anatinus
Europeans first encountered the Platypus in 1978. So, you can imagine the surprise of Captain John Hunter, the second Governor of New South Wales, when in 1798, he saw and sent a souvenir pelt and sketch of a platypus to Great Britain.
The features seen and described of a platypus were so unbelievable that British scientists of that era labeled it a hoax. In 1799, George Shaw, who first produced a detailed description of the Platypus in the Naturalist’s Miscellany, stated that doubts could arise given the nature and appearance of this animal.
The Platypus (or duck-billed Platypus) is a semi-aquatic mammalian animal with a thriving habitat and comfortable abode in Tasmania, located in eastern Australia.
The Platypus feeds on insects, frogs, and fishes on the surface of water bodies, and it also feeds on invertebrates that dwell at the bottom of these water bodies.
Description
The Platypus has an odd combination of both primitive evolutionary features and particular special adaptations like the duck-like bill and white patches of fur located under its eyes.
It also has fur all over its body, lighter-colored fur on the underside, and dark to light brown color above. The length of a platypus ranges from 15-24 inches, and the male species are generally larger than their female counterparts.
Since the Platypus is semi-aquatic, it has features like dense waterproof fur that keeps it properly insulated, a flat, streamlined body, and eyes and nostrils that are dorsally positioned.
Extensively-webbed front feet (the webbings extend past the claws and are vital to the propulsion of the Platypus while in water).
It also possesses long guard hairs that keep the soft underfur well protected, such that, even after spending hours in the water, the underfur remains dry.
The Platypus achieves stability during swimming by using its paddle-like fur, which acts as a stabilizer, and then the back feet are improvised as rudders and brakes during swimming.
Connected to a venom gland located over the thighs are spurs on the inner side of each ankle of the male Platypus.
The venom spilled by each spur acts as an agent of offense and defense because it is strong enough to kill smaller animals like dogs and cause significant pain when the spur penetrates the skin of humans.
The front limbs of the Platypus are powerful, hence the need for a wide humerus that provides extensive attachment areas for the muscles. The flat pads of hardened gum tissue serve as false teeth for the adult platypuses’ nutritional needs.
Behavior
Platypuses generally enjoy a predominantly solitary lifestyle, feeding almost continuously in the water along the bottoms of lakes, rivers, and streams.
Whenever they are not feeding, they rest in the caves and dig into the banks of these water bodies. They mostly enjoy crustaceans in freshwater and larval insects.
The electromechanical detection system of the Platypus serves the special function of locating its prey. Although the platypus’ main habitat is freshwater, where it feeds and does other biological functions that are peculiar to it, it can occasionally be seen swimming in some saltwater bodies.
Stream productivity, season, individual preference, and cloud cover are some of the factors that determine the level of activity of the Platypus.
The Platypus in the Water
Platypuses hunt underwater, where they swim gracefully by paddling their front legs and guiding with their hind legs and beaver-like tails. Skin folds shield their eyes and ears to keep water from entering, and the nose closes with a watertight seal.
In this pose, a platypus can remain submerged for a minute and use its sensitive bill to detect food.
These Australian mammals are the bottom feeders. They suck up insects and eggs, shellfish, and worms in their bill, along with bits of gravel and mud from below.
All of this content is held in cheek pouches and mashed for consumption on the surface. Platypuses don’t have teeth, so bits of gravel allow them to “chew” their food.
Platypuses in the Land
Platypuses walk a little more awkwardly on the ground. However, the webbing on their feet withdraws, exposing the individual nails and allowing the creatures to run. Platypuses’ nails and legs create dirt caves at the water’s edge.
Reproduction
Platypus reproduction is unique. It is one of only two mammals (the echidna is the other mammal) that lay eggs.
Females seal themselves within one of their burrow chambers to lay their eggs. A mother usually produces one or two eggs and keeps them warm between her body and tail.
Eggs will hatch in about ten days, but platypus infants are the size of lima beans and helpless. Women nurse their young for three to four months before they can swim independently.
Male and female platypuses normally attain full growth between 12 and 18 months and sexual maturity at about 18 months. Not much data has been collated on the life cycle of Platypus, which has permanent, wild habitation, but those kept in captivity or domestication have been extensively studied.
When platypuses clock about four years old, they proceed to mate, and until then, the males and females avoid each other.
They continue to avoid each other again until subsequent breeding seasons and mate again. The males normally fight and inflict wounds on themselves with their spurs during the breeding season.
Mating is quite a stressful activity for the platypuses. Courtship and mating occur from late winter through to spring in the water bodies they dwell in, and the timing of this occurs with latitude—the northern parts of the range experience earlier mating than the southern parts.
Gestation for the female platypuses takes place for a period of two weeks to one month. During this period, the females construct special nursery burrows to lay their two small, leathery eggs, which undergo an incubation period of 6-10 days.
The eggs are incubated when the female curls around them in a manner and fashion in which her bill touches her tail. The eggs are hatched with the help of an egg tooth and caruncle.
The young hatchlings obtain their nutrition for 3-4 months by suckling milk from their mother’s special mammary hairs while enjoying protection from their burrows, after which they become independent and can fend for themselves.
The young platypuses lose their vestigial teeth shortly after leaving the burrow to go off into the wild. Some studies have documented platypuses living up to 20 years in the wild and almost 23 years in domestication or captivity, which is a pretty long time for an animal so small.
