Platypus
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
- This article is about the mammal. Scientists also use the name platypus to refer to the ambrosia beetle.
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Platypus Conservation status: Lower risk (lc)
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| Ornithorhynchus anatinus (Shaw, 1799) |
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 Platypus range (the darker shading)[2]
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The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a small mammal of the order Monotremata. It lives in eastern Australia.
It spends some time in water, and some time on land. There are only four types of mammals which lay eggs (monotremes). One is the platypus. The other three egg-laying mammals are kinds of echidnas.
The scientific name ornithorhynchus means "bird nose" in Greek. Anatinus is "duck". First, scientists gave the name "platypus" (flat foot) to its group. But this name was already for the ambrosia beetle, a beetle which lives in wood.
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[edit] What sort of animal is it?
The platypus looks similar to a beaver with a brown, furry body and wide, flat tail. Unlike a beaver, it has webbed feet (joined toes, good for swimming). Its nose is large and rubbery. We also give the platypus the name "duckbilled platypus" because of this nose: it is similar to a duck's bill (mouth). Platypuses can be big or small. Adults can be less than a kilogram or over two kilograms. Its body can be from 30 to 40 cm long. Its tail can be from 10 to 15 cm long. Males are about one-third (1/3) larger than females. No-one knows why some platypuses are bigger or smaller, but they are bigger in some places than in others.
The male platypus has sharp spines on his legs called ankle spurs which contain a mild poison. While not lethal to humans, the poison has been known to kill small animals and cause pains lasting as long as 4 months.
[edit] How does it live?
The platypus sleeps during the day. It moves mostly at night. It is a very good swimmer and spends much of its time in the water. It keeps its eyes shut when swimming, using on its other senses (hearing, feeling etc). The toes on its feet are joined. When it swims, it pushes itself along by moving the front two feet. The tail and back feet help it to turn left or right, but does not make it faster.
The platypus eats other animals. It eats worms; insect larvae, which are wormlike insect babies; freshwater shrimp; and yabbies, which are a kind of freshwater crayfish. It digs these animals out of the bottom of the river with its nose, or catches them while swimming. Its nose can sense many things that other animal noses cannot. The platypus can sense electricity from other animals. No other mammal can do this. The platypus can hunt without using its eyes.
When on land, the platypus lives in a short, straight, oval hole. It makes these holes in the riverbank a little above the water. It likes them hidden under roots. When a female platypus is pregnant (ready to have babies), the female makes much larger holes, up to 20 metres long. She blocks the tunnel with earth at several places. At the end of the tunnel, she builds a nest out of reeds (river grass) for her eggs.
The platypus lays eggs in its nest. When the babies come out of the eggs they hold on to the mother. The mother makes milk for the new babies. The platypus does not have nipples, but milk comes through small openings in the skin. The young platypus drinks the milk from the mother's stomach while she lies on her back.
[edit] Where can I find a platypus?
The platypus lives in small streams and rivers over a large area of Australia. The map above shows this with dark purple. People have seen it in Tasmania, the Australian Alps, Queensland, and the Cape York Peninsula. No one knows exactly where the platypus may live away from the coast.
In the past, platypuses lived in South Australia. Today no one finds any platypuses there, except some on Kangaroo Island, but some people put them there. There are no more platypuses in the Murray-Darling Basin. The water there is no good because people used it to grow plants, and cleared the trees from the land. It is strange that the platypus does not live in some healthy rivers. It does live in some less healthy coastal rivers, for example the Maribyrnong.
Anyone can see a platypus in the wild if they have luck and patience. They dislike areas with people, spend most of their time underground or under water, and sleep during the day, but people do see them. In some places, clever fishermen and birdwatchers can see a platypus every year or two.
[edit] The past and the future
Europeans saw the first platypus in the 18th century. They sent the skin of a dead platypus to Britain, so scientists could study it. At first, the scientists thought the skin was a joke, because they thought no animal could look so strange. They thought an Asian had made it from pieces of different animals.
National Geographic magazine had a story on the platypus in 1939. Many people all over the world had never heard of the platypus. The story told how hard it is to raise platypus babies in zoos. (Raising is helping little babies to grow.) Even today, humans have raised only few platypuses. The Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria has raised a few platypuses.
The platypus will probably not die out completely in the near future. Ecologists say that it is secure but faces future threat (safe now but not in the future) or common but vulnerable (there are a lot now but they are not safe). They say this because people can make the water unsafe for the platypus.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Ornithorhynchidae
