The male platypus has a venomous spur on his back feet. It can kill smaller animals.
The platypus bill feels like rubber.
The platypus swims with its eyes, nose, and mouth shut.
The mother platypus lays one to three eggs. She doesn't have nipples, like most female mammals--instead she secretes milk from two round patches of skin on her belly.
Yay for odd animals!
Not true -- there's one other monotreme (egg-laying mammal) living in Australia: the Echidna.
ReplyDeleteThey're insect-eating, spiny things that look like a mix of a hedgehog and an anteater. Your son might be interested in them :) There's an echidna character on Sonic the Hedgehog (Knuckles, I believe) that you can point out, too. Although it occurs to me that Sonic the Hedgehog is kind of before his time. Heck it's kind of before many current high schooler's time.......
It's true! You corrected me in time for me to NOT share the wrong info with my son, so yay! He knew about the Sonic thing. I think there's an 80's show streaming on Netflix that he's seen an episode or two of.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, maybe he knew about the other monotremes exist thing, too. Probably. Kids know stuff you'd never suspect... :)