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Table of Contents
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), often known as the duck-billed platypus, is an egg-laying mammal native to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Platypus is the only living example or monotypic taxon of its group Ornithorhynchidae and genus Ornithorhynchus, despite the existence of multiple related species in the fossil record.
See the fact file below for more information on Platypus, or you can download our 23-page Platypus worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
Overview
- Alongside four species of echidna, it is one of five existing marsupials, mammals that produce eggs instead of giving birth to live offspring. It detects prey by electrolocation, like other monotremes. The male platypus possesses a spike in its hind foot that carries venom capable of causing considerable pain to humans, making it one of the few species of poisonous animals.
- When European naturalists were perplexed when they first saw this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed creature. The first scientists to study a preserved platypus body (in 1799) pronounced it a forgery composed of multiple animals sewn together.
- The platypus’s distinct characteristics make it a significant subject in evolutionary biology research as well as a recognizable and iconic emblem of Australia. It holds cultural significance for some Aboriginal Australians, who used to hunt animals for sustenance.
- The platypus has served as a mascot at national events and appears on the back of the Australian twenty-cent piece; it is also the animal symbol of the state of New South Wales. Humans hunted the platypus for its fur until the early twentieth century, but it is now protected across its habitat.
- Although captive breeding operations have had little success, and the platypus is sensitive to the impacts of pollution, it is not currently endangered. Platypus is a legally safeguarded species in all states where it exists as of 2020.
- It is an endangered species in South Australia and Victoria, and its listing in New South Wales has been proposed. The IUCN classifies the species as near-threatened, but a November 2020 assessment suggested that it be raised to threatened status under the federal EPBC Act owing to habitat degradation and dwindling populations in all states.
Etymology
- When Europeans first discovered the platypus in 1798, Captain John Hunter sent a pelt and drawing back to the United Kingdom. The British scientists’ first thought was that the qualities were a fraud.
- George Shaw, who published the first account of the creature in the Naturalist’s Miscellany in 1799, noted that it was hard not to have concerns about its natural origin, and Robert Knox suspected an Asian taxidermist created it. They were said to have stitched a duck’s snout onto the body of a beaver-like animal, and Shaw also used scissors to inspect the dried skin for stitches.
- The popular term “platypus” literally means “flat foot” and is derived from the Greek word platpous, which is composed of plats (‘broad, wide, flat’) and pos (‘foot’). When Shaw described the species, he gave it the Linnaean name Platypus anatinus. Nonetheless, it soon revealed the genus name as the designation of the wood-boring ambrosia insect genus Platypus.
- Johann Blumenbach separately described it as Ornithorhynchus paradoxus in 1800 (from a specimen supplied to him by Sir Joseph Banks). It was later legally recognized as Ornithorhynchus anatinus, following the norms of name priority.
- In the English language, there is no commonly accepted plural form of “platypus.” Scientists typically use the term “platypuses” or simply “platypus.”
- The term “platypi” is frequently used informally for the plural, although it is a sort of pseudo-Latin; the plural would be “platypodes” based on the word’s Greek roots.
Taxonomy
- The scientific term Ornithorhynchus anatinus directly translates as “duck-like bird-snout,” with the genus name derived from the Greek roots ornith- (‘bird’) and rhnkhos (‘snout,’ ‘beak’). The word anatinus (‘duck-like) is derived from the Latin anas (‘duck’).
Description
- Males are more significant than females, with weights ranging from 0.7 to 2.4 kg. Males average 50 cm (20 in) in overall length, while girls average 43 cm (17 in), with significant regional variance in average size. This pattern defies any climate norm and might be attributable to other environmental variables like predation and human encroachment.
- The platypus’s usual body temperature is around 32 °C (90 °F), as opposed to the 37 °C (99 °F) of placental animals. According to research, this results from the tiny number of surviving monotreme species gradually adapting to extreme environmental conditions rather than a historical trait of monotremes.
- Young platypi have three teeth in each of the maxillae and dentaries, which they lose before or shortly after leaving the breeding burrow; adults replace them with strongly keratinized pads called ceratodontes, which they use to ground food. Platypus nestlings’ first and third lower cheek teeth are tiny, with one primary cusp apiece, but the remaining teeth have two main points.
- The platypus jaw is built differently than that of other mammals, as is the muscle that opens the mouth. The small bones that conduct sound in the middle ear are integrated into the skull, as in all real mammals, rather than resting in the jaw as in proto-mammalian synapsids. However, the external ear hole remains at the base of the jaw.
- The platypus has extra shoulder girdle bones, including an interclavicle, that other mammals do not have. The bones exhibit osteosclerosis, as seen in many different aquatic and semiaquatic species, increasing their density to provide ballast.
- It walks like a reptile, with its legs on the sides of its body rather than below. When on land, it walks on its front knuckles to preserve the webbing between its toes.
Venom
- Although both male and female platypuses have ankle spurs, only the triggers on the male’s rear ankles deliver venom, mainly composed of defensin-like proteins (DLPs), three of which are platypus-specific.
- The platypus’ immune system creates DLPs. The role of defensins is to cause lysis in dangerous bacteria and viruses, but they are also synthesized into venom in platypuses for defence. Although the toxin is potent enough to kill smaller animals like dogs, it is not fatal to humans, but the agony is terrible enough that the victim may become immobilized.
- Edema forms quickly around the incision and spreads progressively throughout the afflicted leg. According to case histories and anecdotal data, the discomfort progresses to long-lasting hyperalgesia (heightened pain sensitivity) that lasts for days or months.
- The male’s vertebral canal glands generate venom; kidney-shaped alveolar glands joined by a thin-walled conduit to a calcaneus spur on each hind limb. Female platypus, like echidnas, has rudimentary spur buds that do not mature (falling off before the end of their first year) and lack functioning crural glands.
- The venom serves a different purpose than non-mammalian animals; its effects are not life-threatening to humans but potent enough to damage the victim gravely.
- Because venom is exclusively produced by males and production increases throughout the breeding season, it might be utilized as an aggressive weapon to demonstrate dominance during this time. Similar spurs may be seen on numerous archaic mammal taxa, showing that this is an old trait shared by all mammals, not only the platypus and other monotremes.
Electrolocation
- Apart from at least one dolphin species (the Guiana Dolphin), monotremes are the only mammals that learned to have a sense of electroreception: they identify their prey partly by sensing electric fields created by muscle contractions. The platypus has the most sensitive electroreception of any monotreme.
- Electroreceptors are arranged in rostrocaudal rows in the bill’s epidermis, whereas mechanoreceptors (which feel touch) are evenly distributed throughout the nose. The cerebral cortex’s electrosensory region is located inside the tactile somatosensory area.
- Specific cortical cells receive information from electroreceptors and mechanoreceptors, indicating a tight relationship between the tactile and electric senses.
- The bill’s electroreceptors and mechanoreceptors lead the platypus brain’s somatotopic map in the same way human hands control the Penfield homunculus map. By assessing signal strength fluctuations across the sheet of electroreceptors, the platypus can specify the direction of an electric source.
- It would explain the animal’s unique side-to-side movements when hunting. The cerebral convergence of electrosensory and tactile inputs implies a method for determining the distance between prey that emits both electrical impulses and mechanical pressure pulses as they move. To determine length, the platypus compares the arrival timings of two signals.
- The platypus, which cannot feed by sight or smell, covers its eyes, hearing, and nose every time it dives. When it digs into the depths of streams with its bill, its electroreceptors catch small electric currents caused by its prey’s muscle contractions, allowing it to discriminate between living and inanimate items, which constantly activate its mechanoreceptors.
- Experiments have demonstrated that if a tiny electric current is fed into a platypus, it will react to a “fake shrimp.” Monotreme electrolocation was most likely developed to help the animals graze in murky waters, possibly linked to tooth loss. The ancient Obdurodon was electroreceptive but foraged pelagically, unlike the present platypus (near the ocean surface).
Eyes
- According to current research, platypus eyes are more akin to those of Pacific hagfish or Northern Hemisphere lampreys than most tetrapods. The eyes also have double cones, which other animals lack.
- Although the platypus’s eyes are tiny and do not function underwater, various traits suggest that vision was crucial in its origins. The corneal and surrounding surfaces of the lens are flat, but the posterior side of the lens is sharply curved, like in the eyes of other aquatic animals such as otters and sea lions.
- A temporal (ear side) attention of retinal ganglion cells, which is required for binocular vision, suggests a function in predation, even though visual acuity is insufficient for such behaviors.
- Furthermore, this poor insight is matched by a low cortical magnification, a small lateral geniculate nucleus, and a big optic tectum, indicating that the visual midbrain, rather than the visual cortex, plays an essential role, as in certain rodents.
- These characteristics indicate that the platypus adapted to an aquatic and nocturnal lifestyle, developing its electrosensory system at the expense of its visual system; an evolutionary process paralleled by the short-beaked echidna’s small number of electroreceptors, which lives in dry environments, while the lengthy echidna, which lives in moist environments, is transitional between the other two monotremes.
Bioflourescence
- In 2020, a biofluorescence study discovered that the platypus emits a bluish-green tint when exposed to black light.
Platypuses on the water
- Platypuses hunt underwater, swimming beautifully with their form webbed feet and guiding with their hind feet and beaver-like tails to keep water out, skin folds cover their eyes and ears, and their nostrils are locked with a watertight barrier.
- In this position, a platypus may stay underwater for a minute and use its sensitive beak to detect food, bottom feeders, and these Australian creatures. In their bill, they sweep up insects and larvae, shellfish, and worms, as well as stones and muck from the bottom.
- All this stuff is kept in cheek pouches and crushed for intake at the surface. Platypuses lack teeth, so the gravel helps them “chew” their food.
Platypuses on the land
- Platypuses move more awkwardly on the ground. However, the webbing on their feet retracts, exposing individual nails and allowing the animals to run. Platypuses dig dirt holes along the water’s edge with claws and feet.
Reproduction
- Platypus reproduction is almost unheard of, and it is one of only two animals that lay eggs (the other being the echidna). To deposit their eggs, females shut themselves within one of the burrow’s chambers. A mother will typically deposit one or two eggs, which she will keep warm by tucking between her belly and tail.
- Although platypus eggs hatch for around ten days, platypus offspring are the size of lima beans and are completely helpless. Females feed their infants for three to four months until they can swim independently.
Conservation
- Except for its extinction in South Australia, the platypus has maintained its broad range since the European colonization of Australia. However, minor modifications and fragmentation of distribution owing to human habitat modification have been recorded.
- Its historical abundance is unknown, and its present mine is difficult to estimate, although it is presumed to have dropped in numbers, while it was still deemed abundant over much of its current range in 1998.
- Heavily hunted the species for its fur until the early twentieth century. Despite being protected across Australia since 1905, it was at risk of drowning in inland fishing nets until around 1950.
- In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reclassified it as “near threatened.” The species is legally protected.
- However, under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972, it is only listed as endangered in South Australia. It was proposed as a vulnerable species under Victoria’s Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 in 2020.
Platypus Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about the platypus across 23 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Platypus worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Platypus, which is an egg-laying mammal native to eastern Australia, including Tasmania.
Complete List of Included Worksheets
- Platypus Facts
- Platypus Sketch
- Vocabulary Check
- Body Blocks
- Mammal Moms
- Truth Bubbles
- Life of a Platypus Mom
- Habitat Destruction
- The Platypus Diet
- Perry the Platypus
- Platypoem
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a platypus?
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), often known as the duck-billed platypus, is an egg-laying mammal native to eastern Australia, including Tasmania.
What is the difference between platypuses on land and water?
Platypuses hunt underwater, swimming beautifully with their form webbed feet and guiding with their hind feet and beaver-like tail to keep water out, skin folds cover their eyes and ears, and their nostrils lock with a watertight barrier. While platypuses move more awkwardly on the ground. However, the webbing on their feet retracts, exposing individual nails and allowing the animals to run. Platypuses dig dirt holes along the water’s edge with claws and feet.
Is platypus venomous?
The platypus’ immune system creates DLPs. The role of defensins is to cause lysis in dangerous bacteria and viruses, but they are also synthesized into venom in platypuses for defence. Although the toxin is potent enough to kill smaller animals like dogs, it is not fatal to humans, but the agony is terrible enough that the victim may become immobilized.
How does a platypus undergo reproduction?
Platypus reproduction is almost unheard of, and it is one of only two animals that lay eggs (the other being the echidna). To deposit their eggs, females shut themselves within one of the burrow’s chambers. A mother will typically deposit one or two eggs, which she will keep warm by tucking between her belly and tail.
Is platypus endangered?
In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reclassified it as “near threatened.” The species is legally protected.
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