Along with the spiky echidna, these two Australian animals belong to a highly-specialised group of mammals, known as monotremes, which both lay eggs but also nurse their young with milk. 4.The duck-billed platypus is truly one of the oddest creatures on Earth.
Evolution: Making Sense of Life by Carl Zimmer and Douglas J.In that case, we are “primitive,” right? * However, if we switch the placement of eutherians and platypuses, we can see that platypuses have electrochemoreceptors and webbed feet that eutherians and we humans do not have. It is also true that animal teats are not present on platypuses compared to their eutherian cousins. Platypuses, then, are not “un-advanced.” It is true that instead of giving birth, they lay eggs, a biological reproduction that is more related to the ancestral mammals of therians. Switching Eutherians and Platypuses on the Evolutionary Tree They are displayed farther to the left, near reptiles, but it is a common mistake to assume platypuses or monotremes are less advanced than eutherians due to its placement to the left. Platypuses are often depicted evolutionarily in diagrams such as the one below.
In other words, monotremes, like the platypus, find themselves classified separately from eutherians, such as mice and us, humans. Due to its unique appearance and biology, the platypus has found its lineage branching off from an internal node that separates it from the eutherian mammals (unique characteristics include placenta and advanced development before birth).
With its eclectic duck bill, beaver tail, and pain-shocking venom, to name a few, the platypus has long amazed the naturalist community. Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth, and currently, the platypus is one of the five existing montrome species. Ornithorhynchus anatinusor also known as the platypus is a unique monotreme species indigenous to eastern Australia. Water-colored painting of duck-billed platypuses by Heinrich Harder.
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