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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 ...
The monotreme platypus has what looks like a bird's beak (hence its scientific name Ornithorhynchus), but is a mammal. [38] However, it is not structurally similar to a bird beak (or any "true" beak, for that matter), being fleshy instead of keratinous. Red blood cells in mammals lack a cell nucleus.
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 ...
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.
[37] [99] On average, more females survive than males, [97] and up to 60% of young do not survive to maturity. [61] Milk replacements are often used for devils that have been bred in captivity, for orphaned devils or young who are born to diseased mothers. Little is known about the composition of the devil's milk compared to other marsupials. [103]
Platypus foot. Some semiaquatic mammals have webbed feet. Most of these have interdigital webbing, as opposed to the syndactyly found in birds. Some notable examples include the platypus, the beaver, the otter, and the water opossum. [19] [20] [21] Capybaras have slightly webbed feet, [22] while hippopotamuses have webbed toes. [23]
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.
Obdurodon is a genus of extinct platypus-like Australian monotreme which lived from the Late Oligocene to the Late Miocene.Three species have been described in the genus, the type species Obdurodon insignis, plus Obdurodon dicksoni and Obdurodon tharalkooschild.