This spur produces a clear, sticky venom used for protection when attacked by predators and to compete with other males for mates. Males are equipped with a keratin spur about 12-18 millimetres long, tucked away on their inner hind ankle. Males have a venomous spur on their inner-hind ankle. As electricity moves through water rapidly, the electroreceptors will often detect prey before the push rods.ģ. The skin on the bill has ‘push rods’ which detect touch and water movement from 15-20 centimetres away, and is also dotted with electroreceptors which detect the small amounts of electricity produced by muscle movements of prey. When diving, they close their eyes and block their ears and nose, using only the bill to locate prey underwater. The platypus’ bill is similar to that of a duck in appearance, but for the platypus, it is used as a sensory organ. Their bill is used as a sensory organ to find prey underwater. Monotremes are also characterised by a primitive skeleton, very similar to that of long-extinct mammals, which suggests that monotremes are actually very ancient creatures.Ģ. There are only five species of monotreme in the world – all found only in Australia and New Guinea – including the platypus, and four species of Echidna. The name given to egg-laying mammals is a ‘monotreme’. They are one of the only mammals that lay eggs. This egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, with some considering it an elaborate hoax.ġ. Retrieved June 2014.The platypus is arguably one of the most remarkable species on earth. " The Enigma of the Echidna." National Wildlife. Frequency of breeding and recruitment in the short-beaked echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus. The echidna manifests typical characteristics of rapid eye movement sleep. One-sided ejaculation of echidna sperm bundles. D., Smith, B., Pyne, M., Stenzel, D., and Holt, W. Spiky Baby-Killers: Echidna Secrets Revealed. (Watch a video of an echidna hunting here.)īradiopsylla echidnae*. Since they have no teeth, echidnas break their food down with hard pads located on the roof of the mouth and back of the tongue. (The short-beaked echidna earned its scientific name, *Tachyglossus, *meaning "fast tongue," from its way of rapidly darting its 6-inch tongue in and out of its mouth to slurp up insects). They use their long, sticky tongues to feed on ants, termites, worms, and insect larvae. At the end of their slender snouts, echidnas have tiny mouths and toothless jaws. They're toothless but make up for it with their tongues. While the platypus has 40,000 electroreceptors on its bill, echidnas have only 400-2,000 electroreceptors on their snouts.Ĩ. Like the platypus, the echidna has an electroreceptive system. Instead, female echidnas have special glands in their pouches called milk patches that secrete milk, which the puggle laps up.ħ. Like all mammals, echidnas feed their young milk. Ten days later, the baby echidna (called a puggle and smaller than a jelly bean) hatches.Ħ. After mating, a female echidna lays a single, soft-shelled, leathery egg, about the size of a dime, into her pouch. Along with the platypus, the echidna is a member of the monotremes, an order of egg-laying mammals found in Australia. Photo: JJ Harrison, via Wikimedia Commonsĥ.
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