Is the platypus a mammal or a bird? Detailed answer

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Is the platypus a mammal or a bird? Detailed answer

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Is the platypus a mammal or a bird?

It would be difficult to find a stranger animal on earth than a platypus or platypus. You are unlikely to ever see it, as platypuses die in captivity. What makes these animals so unusual? First of all, the platypus is very similar to a fish, a bird, and even a reptile, but is neither one nor the other, nor the third. This is an intermediate animal that appeared in the process of evolution. Mammals nurse their young, the same can be said about the platypus. Reptiles and birds lay eggs, and so does the platypus. The body temperature of a reptile changes depending on the ambient temperature, the same is true for the platypus.

But in reality, the platypus is a mammal, one of two types of egg-laying mammals (the second such animal is the anteater). The platypus has webbed feet and instead of a mouth, it has a duck-like beak. He swims in the water like a fish. This animal lives only in the eastern part of Australia and Tasmania. The length of the male is about fifty-three centimeters, and the females are forty-five centimeters. The body is covered with a soft undercoat, hidden under long, coarse hair, the tips of which are bent towards the body. It has a flat, beaver-like tail.

The platypus hears perfectly, although it does not have auricles. He hears with inner ears. The platypus cannot breathe underwater, so it has to keep its beak above the water when it swims - its very tip, where the nostrils are located. On the heels of the hind legs of the male is a keratinized organ connected to poisonous glands. This amazing creature makes a home in minks on the banks of quiet backwaters of rivers.

Platypuses spend most of the day in their burrows and only come out at night to feed. They feed on aquatic insects, worms and mollusks. Platypuses equip themselves with a special mink under the nest for incubation of eggs, lining it with leaves, grass and reeds. The female lays the eggs in this nest and incubates them by curling up around them. The babies hatch blind and helpless. For some time they stay in this nest, feeding on mother's milk.

Author: Likum A.

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