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The venom-delivering spur is found only on the male's hind limbs. The platypus is one of the few living mammals to produce venom.The venom is made in venom glands that are connected to hollow spurs on their hind legs; it is primarily made during the mating season. [1]
The spurs have enough strength to support the weight of the platypus, which often hangs from the victim, requiring assistance for removal. Most of the evidence now supports the proposition that the venom system is used by males on one another as a weapon when competing for females, taking part in sexual selection .
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.
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.
A stinger (or sting) is a sharp organ found in various animals (typically insects and other arthropods) capable of injecting venom, usually by piercing the epidermis of another animal. An insect sting is complicated by its introduction of venom , although not all stings are venomous.
Ornithorhynchoidea is a superfamily of mammals containing the only living monotremes, the platypus and the echidnas, as well as their closest fossil relatives, to the exclusion of more primitive fossil monotremes of uncertain affinity.
Platypuses have been used several times as mascots: Syd the platypus was one of the three mascots chosen for the Sydney 2000 summer Olympics along with an echidna and a kookaburra, [134] Expo Oz the platypus was the mascot for World Expo 88, which was held in Brisbane in 1988, [135] and Hexley the platypus is the mascot for the Darwin operating ...
Potamotrygonidae have a venomous stinger on the tail (although it is harmless and vestigal or even absent in Heliotrygon). [59] [60] There are generally one or two stingers, and they are periodically shed and replaced. [61] They are some of the most feared freshwater fishes in the Neotropical region because of the injuries they can cause.