Platypus Page

Some facts about everyone's favorite monotreme
Every new thing I find out about them is interesting.

  1. The platy- in the name platypus means "flat," and comes from the same root as the word platykurtic, describing the shape of a frequency distribution that departs from the normal ("bell-shaped") curve by being relatively flattened.

    (Note that although the name means "flat", the main characteristic of a platykurtic distribution is that compared to the normal distribution it has fewer observations extending into the tails of the distribution, i.e., there are fewer outliers, and its flatness is an incidental consequence of that.)
  2. But the platy- in platypus doesn't refer to its conspicuous bill -- it refers to its less obvious, but still noticeably flat, feet.
  3. The first European naturalist to describe it named it platypus but its species name isn't platypus because that name had already been used for a genus of beetle. The offical name is Ornithorhynchus anatinus, "bird-nose like a duck." (The same root platy- is seen in Plato's name, and that wasn't his real name either. His real name was Aristocles; "Plato" was the nickname he got due to his broad figure as a wrestler, though some say it referred to his forehead.)
  4. When Europeans first saw a platypus specimen in 1798, some scientists thought it was a taxidermist's hoax sewn together from parts of other animals (an otter, a duck, a beaver). They searched it for stitches. That first studied specimen is still in London's Natural History Museum.(See story.)
  5. They're hairy and warm-blooded like all mammals, and they also have that overlooked fancy three-boned inner ear stucture that characterizes all mammals. For other facts about mammals consult the melancholy song tribute to mammals by They Might Be Giants: Mammal

    Glass of milk
    Standing in between extinction in the cold
    and explosive radiating growth
    So the warm blood flows
    Through the large four-chambered heart
    Maintaining the very high metabolism rate they have

    Mammal, mammal
    Their names are called
    They raise a paw
    The bat, the cat
    Dolphin and dog
    Koala bear and hog

    One of us might lose his hair
    But you're reminded that it once was there
    From the embryonic whale to the monkey with no tail
    So the warm blood flows
    with the red blood cells lacking nuclei
    Through the large four-chambered heart
    Maintaining the very high metabolism rate they have

    Placental the sister of her brother Marsupial
    Their cousin called Monotreme
    Dead uncle Allotheria

    Mammal, mammal
    Their names are called
    They raise a paw
    The bat, the cat
    Dolphin and dog
    Koala bear and hog
    The fox, the ox
    Giraffe and shrew
    Echidna, caribou
  6. Platypus and echidna are the only monotremes today. They diverged from the rest of the mammals about 150 million years ago.
  7. Platypus is semi-aquatic and eats worms, larvae, shrimp, and crayfish; echidna lives on land and eats bugs.
  8. There's only one species of platypus so it doesn't really have to be called the "duck-billed platypus." It's only found in Australia. There are four living species of echidna (three long-beaked in New Guinea and the short-beaked which is in Australia too) and two extinct ones. The extinct ones were the size of houses. Not really, but how cool would that be.

    [short-beaked echidna, size of a dollhouse]

  9. The entire genome of the platypus has been decoded, not because it's so important but probably just because people couldn't resist. It has has ten sex chromosomes instead of most mammals' two (X and Y); a male Platypus is XYXYXYXYXY. (See story and video.)
  10. Monotremes are the only mammals that lay eggs instead of producing live young. But that's not what "monotreme" means.
  11. Monotremes are the only mammals with no foreskin. (The only male mammals, that is.) But that's not what "monotreme" means.
  12. Instead of separate urinary, defecatory and reproductive ducts, they use one duct for all of those functions: the cloaca. "Monotreme" means "one hole."
  13. Adult monotremes have no teeth.
  14. A platypus can live up to 17 years.
  15. Baby monotremes are called "puggles," in case "baby platypus" isn't funny enough.
  16. Only the female platypus's left ovary is functional.
  17. Females produce milk, but have no nipples; they sort of just sweat it through pores onto the surface of their skin, where it collects in grooves in the abdomen for the puggles to lap it up. "Puggles," they're called!
  18. While swimming the platypus paddles with its front feet, using its back feet and tail only for steering.
  19. They keep their eyes closed underwater. The platypus is among the few mammals capable of electroreception: they can sense electric fields generated by other animals underwater and judge the distance to prey by combining that information with slower-to-arrive pressure changes in the water.
  20. The male has spurs on its hind legs, and the spurs can be used to inject a powerful venom, something that only a few mammals do. It's painful enough to incapacitate a human. (Females lose their spurs early on.)
  21. The plural of platypus is platypuses. Often it's given incorrectly as platypi as if it were the plural of a Latin word, but the word is actually from the Greek platy- "flat" plus pus "foot". Applying the Greek plural form would give a plural of platypodes (pronounced "platy-pode-eez" or "-aze"), which no one uses. By the same token, the Greek-formed plural for octopus ("eight feet") would be octopodes, and no one says that either -- often people say octopi but the real plural is actually just octopuses.
  22. The most famous platypus is a housepet who, unbeknownst to his owners, lives a double life as a secret agent for O.W.C.A., a government organization of animal spies. For details, see https://phineasandferb.fandom.com/wiki/Perry_the_Platypus.



Most of this info is on Wikipedia.