The platypus is an animal that belongs to the group of mammals. Its name comes from the scientific Latin ornithorhynchus , a word that in turn derives from the Greek terms ornitho and rĂ½nchos .
This species is part of the set of monotremes: they lay eggs and have beaks like birds, although their young feed on the milk that flows from the maternal breasts. When examined closely, the beak is not the same as a bird's because it is covered in hair. The members of this order also have a cavity known as the cloaca, where the reproductive, urinary and digestive tracts converge.
In addition to their beaks, platypuses have webbed feet and a long, flat tail, very similar to that of beavers. Its body, on the other hand, is covered with a fine, grayish fur. Its skeleton is more like that of reptiles than that of the rest of the animals of its genus.
As well as certain rodents, the platypus has cheek pouches, pouches that are in his mouth and used to preserve food until it's time to eat. Its body size is relatively small: its length is between 45 and 60 centimeters; With regard to weight, males can measure between 1 and 2.4 kilograms but females, between 0.7 and 1.6 kilograms.
Another peculiarity of platypus is that they are poisonous. Male specimens have a spur on their hind legs that releases a poison. Platypus inject this substance into other males to take care of their territory, especially during mating season.
The person who is attacked by a platypus and receives its venom experiences severe pain. Given the low level of toxicity, however, this poison is not fatal to humans.
The platypus, endemic to the eastern part of Australia as well as the island of Tasmania, live in areas of rivers and streams as they are semi-aquatic and excellent swimmers. More specifically, their habitat is complex tunnels with many galleries that can measure up to thirty meters and they themselves dig them near the banks. They feed on fish, insects and larvae, while eagles, hawks, owls and snakes appear among their predators.
After a gestation that lasts 28 days, the female lays the eggs and incubates them for a maximum of ten days. Usually, it puts between one and three, which remain attached thanks to the presence of a viscous substance.
As if the appearance of the platypus and its way of reproduction were not rare enough, it is one of the few animals that does not have a stomach. There is nowhere between your throat and your intestine where acid is produced to digest food. There are several vertebrates that in the last two millennia began a process of "loss" of the stomach, and in this group are the echidna (the closest relative to the platypus), the dipno (a vertebrate fish that can breathe out of water) and the chimera (a species similar to the shark).
The first platypus fossil is about one hundred thousand years old, from the Pleistocene period. The extinct genera Steropodon and Teinolophos of monotreme mammals were closely linked to the modern platypus.