6 Fun Facts about Platypuses!
6 Fun Facts about Platypuses 🦆🦫
Platypuses are pretty unique animals for a couple reasons. In fact, they look so unique that European naturalists first thought they were a hoax! Here’s some fun facts about platypuses:
They are one of only two mammals that lay eggs (the other is echidnas, another animal from Australia)!
Males have venomous spurs on their back legs. The venom is strong enough to give humans severe pain and even kill smaller animals!
They don't have stomachs! The food goes straight to their intestines! This is even crazier given the fact that adult platypuses don't have teeth. Instead, they use gravel to help grind their food up enough so that they can digest it.
Their tails store fat, which helps them survive when they can't find food.
Platypuses use electroreception to find food. They have very highly specialized sensors in their bills, which can detect motion and electrical signals from muscle contractions in their prey. It’s pretty fascinating! You can read more about it here: Platypus Hunts Using Electric Sixth Sense | AMNH
Platypuses eat worms, insect larvae, shrimp, crabs, snails, little fish, and much more. Adult platypuses only grow up to 24 inches long and weigh about 6 pounds - in other words, they're pretty small. So most of the food they eat is also pretty small.
Dinosaurs and platypuses co-existed! It was first reported in 2023 that fossils of a platypus cousin, Patagorhynchus pascuali, were discovered in Argentina that were more than 70 million years old. In fact, scientists now believe that platypuses first appeared more than 112 million years ago, well before dinosaurs went extinct!
Our strangest mammal just got even more interesting!
Want to see them in action? The San Diego Zoo has a special web cam set-up so you can see them yourself!