Is a platypus a mammal yes or no?
The platypus is a remarkable mammal found only in Australia.
Sometimes known as a duck-billed platypus, this curious mammal combines the characteristics of many different species in one. The platypus is a duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed, egg-laying aquatic creature native to Australia.
This platypus, renowned as one of the few mammals that lay eggs, also is one of only a few venomous mammals. The males can deliver a mega-sting that causes immediate, excruciating pain, like hundreds of hornet stings, leaving victims incapacitated for weeks.
The Platypus is also called the duck-billed platypus. How many Platypuses are left in the world? There are 300,000 Platypuses left in the world.
The platypus bear is a large mammal native to the forests and valleys of the Earth Kingdom, where it typically resides near rivers. Wild platypus bears have an aggressive nature and are prone to accidentally laying eggs when frightened.
Although, like reptiles, the platypus keeps its testes near its kidneys throughout life, its genome bears the imprint of changes that eventually allowed most other male mammals, including humans, to store their reproductive organs in cooler temperatures outside the body.
Platypus have eyes above their bill so they are not able see things directly below them. Skin flaps cover the Platypus' eyes and ears underwater which means it is temporarily blind when swimming. Instead, the Platypus uses its bill to feel its way and find food under water.
Can you eat it? NO! The Platypus is poisonous so don't even try. Up until the 20th century it was hunted for it's fur, but it is now a protected species.
Exclusive to Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania, the platypus and the echidna are the only two mammals known to lay eggs! These are two types of eggs which are definitely not suitable for eating.
There is no universally-agreed plural form of "platypus" in the English language. Scientists generally use "platypuses" or simply "platypus". Colloquially, the term "platypi" is also used for the plural, although this is a form of pseudo-Latin; going by the word's Greek roots the plural would be "platypodes".
Effect on humans and other animals
Although powerful enough to paralyse smaller animals, the venom is not lethal to humans. Yet, it produces excruciating pain that may be intense enough to incapacitate a victim. Swelling rapidly develops around the entry wound and gradually spreads outward.
Can you survive a platypus sting?
During envenoming, the platypus wraps its hind legs around the target and drives its spurs into their flesh with substantial force. While platypus envenoming is capable of killing dogs, the venom does not appear to be lethal to other platypuses or to humans.
Platypuses are biofluorescent, meaning their fur glows a bluish-green hue under ultraviolet (UV) light.
Threats to Platypus
Run-off from pasture (sediments and nutrient load) can degrade Platypus habitat. Platypuses are eaten by snakes, water rats, birds of prey and occasionally crocodiles. It's likely that foxes, dingoes and wild dogs kill Platypuses that venture on land.
The animal is best described as a hodgepodge of more familiar species: the duck (bill and webbed feet), beaver (tail), and otter (body and fur).
Like all mammals, monotreme mothers produce milk for their young. But unlike all other mammals, monotremes like the platypus have no nipples. Their milk oozes out of mammary gland ducts and collects in grooves on their skin--where the nursing babies lap it up or suck it from tufts of fur.
The platypus enjoys a short pregnancy. Its embryo sits in the uterus for just 2-3 weeks, surrounded by a thin eggshell, and nourished by a primitive placenta. It then emerges as an egg. Marsupials, like kangaroos and koalas, also have short pregnancies.
The platypus has a four-chambered heart
Ornithorhynchus anatinus, a Platypus endemic of Australia. Platypuses share a common skeletal structure with other mammals.
Let's return to the platypus. They have 21 pairs of ordinary chromosomes, plus 5 pairs of sex chromosomes. That's 8 more total sex chromosomes than us. But there are only two sexes of platypus.
The senses of sight, smell, and hearing are essentially shut down while the platypus is submerged to feed, but it possesses a unique electromechanical system of electroreceptors and touch receptors that allow it to navigate perfectly underwater.
What animal has 7 stomachs?
Actually all animals have just one stomach it may be divided into parts that perform different digestive functions. Ruminants those animals that “chew their cud” or burp and digest some more typically have 4 parts to their stomachs. There are no animals with 7 parts to their stomachs.
The brains of the platypus and the echidna are distinctly different from each other; the platypus has a smooth, relatively small brain (Figures 2(a) and 2(b)), and the echidna has a convoluted, large brain with commensurate expansion of the cortical sheet (Figures 2(c) and 2(d)).
It's sometimes claimed that an elephant is the only land mammal that can't jump. However, we feel quite confident that a platypus is at least as inept as an elephant when it comes to launching itself off the ground.
Can you eat a koala? From a legal point of view: NO. Also not for health reasons, because the meat of a koala can be very toxic. Koalas only feed on eucalyptus and the substances of the eucalyptus can cause a shortness of breath if you consume it in large quantities.
Adult males in particular are potentially dangerous animals to handle because of the venom delivered by their spurs. Sensibly, platypus cannot be legally kept as pets in Australia, nor are there currently any legal options for exporting them overseas.