Platypuses are awesome, because
- it is an incredulous evolutionary abnormality, that was considered a hoax when first reported. it was thought that somebody had sewn a duck's beak onto the body of a beaver-like animal.
- the plural of platypus is platypodes (not platypii)
- they are monotremes i.e. lays eggs instead of giving birth. monotremes ~ monos + trema which means single holed, which refers to its cloaca (and cloacal reproduction).
- a group of playtypodes is called a puggle
- the most famous species of platypus known is the duck-billed platypus. strangely, it is the only species of platypus known as well.
- they are also one of the few venomous mammals. the male has an 'ankle spur' on his feet (much like cowboy spur) that is connected to crural glands which produce venom, that works by triggering oedema, that could kill smaller mammals (like dogs) and incapacitate humans.
some other venomous animals are the European mole, the Eurasian water shrew, and the hedgehog (which exhibits a behavior called self anointing where it smears its spines with poison from a frog's glands, thought it is debatable whether it is for defense or sexual arousal in partners). - their tails work as fat reserves. that is an amazing adaptation. (more amazing, i can imagine, would be if they could mix it with caudal autotomy, which is what lizards do when under threat, making it like a sacrificial gesture to the predator god).
- it hunts inside the water, with eyes, nose and ears completely blocked. what it has done to overcome this handicap is unbelievable. it has developed electrolocation. its beak can be imagined as a flat radar scanner, that is lined with rows of electroreceptors. it detects tiny muscle contractions in its prey, providing all its input data in this form, continuously scanning the water for more calculation (feed me data!) through characteristic side-to-side motion of the head.
- being a mammal, it feeds its newborn milk. but this milk comes not from teats, but through skin pores that give out milk. this milk collects in grooves on its abdomen, where it's lapped up by the newborn. that is a new solution to a regular mammalian problem.
- mammals, ordinarily, have 2 chromosomes. platypus has 10 chromosomes.
- no gene has been identified with gender determination in the the platypus.
- the platypus features in an indigenous Australian story, where the major animal groups, the land animals, water animals and birds, all competed for the platypus to join their respective groups, but the platypus ultimately decided to not join any of them, feeling that he did not need to be part of a group to be special. story of my life!
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