tayafarm.blogg.se - Platypus facts

Platypus facts download#

It is a venomous mammal so it’s best not to pet them! Only the males are venomous.

Its esophagus connects directly to the intestines. A platypus needs to eat at least 20% of its total body weight in a day. It gathers food and stores it in its cheek pouches before eating it on the surface. It uses mud and gravel to chew and munch on bits of food that its toothless mouth wouldn’t be able to chew otherwise.

Its diet consists of mainly invertebrates such as worms, insect larva, shrimp, crayfish and occasionally frogs and fish.

Its bill is very useful in hunting for food because it has electroreceptors that can detect the electrical currents generated by its prey.

A platypus’ bill is leathery and highly sensitive.

When walking on land, its feet fold back. A platypus closes its ears and eyes underwater and uses its bill to sense its environment. It is commonly found in streams and rivers.

They are endemic to Australia, particularly eastern Australia and Tasmania.

Its average size now is approximately 1.5 feet long but it used to measure up to 3 feet long.

The platypus’ first ancestors were much bigger than modern-day platypus.

In his book, The Naturalist’s Miscellany, he wrote that “Of all the Mammalia yet known it seems the most extraordinary in its conformation exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the beak of a Duck engrafted on the head of a quadruped.” Upon its discovery in 1799, English zoologist and naturalist George Shaw thought the platypus was a fake animal because of its odd appearance.It is also called the “duck-billed platypus”, “duckbill”, “watermole” and “duckmole”. The name platypus comes from the Greek word platupous meaning “flat-footed”. Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth. Platypuses are one of the five surviving species of monotremes. The platypus is the only existing member of the Ornithorhynchidae family.

Platypus facts download#

See the fact file below for more information on the platypus or alternatively, you can download our 23-page Platypus worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment. Its bill and feet are like those of a duck’s, its body like that of an otter’s, and its tail like that of a beaver’s. Its physical appearance is very distinct and unique. Download the Platypus Facts & WorksheetsĪ platypus is a carnivorous, semi-aquatic mammal that lays eggs.The other family is the echidna family, also found only in Australia. The platypus is one of two families of mammals that lay eggs instead of giving live birth to their young.Although the female platypus lays eggs instead of giving live birth, once her young hatch, she suckles them with milk made in her own body, just like other mammals.When preserved specimens of the platypus were first sent to Europe in the late 1700s, naturalists there thought the animal was a fake and had simply been stitched together from different animals by a skilled taxidermist.

The other two branches are the placentals and the marsupials.

The platypus and the echidna are the only members of the monotreme branch of mammals.

The platypus has an extremely unique combination of features: it has clawed hindfeet, webbed forefeet, a tail that resembles that of a beaver, and a bill, like a duck.The platypus is an egg-laying mammal found exclusively in eastern Australia, including Tasmania.