All posts tagged: platypus

Ancient platypus had teeth 25 million years ago, fossils reveal

Ancient platypus had teeth 25 million years ago, fossils reveal

Published by Jenni Sidey

For an animal that already looks assembled from spare parts, the platypus has added another twist to its history. Fossils from South Australia point to an ancient species, Obdurodon insignis, that looked a lot like the modern platypus but still carried a full set of crushing teeth. Living platypuses do not. Adults use tough grinding pads instead, one of the features that make them stand apart from nearly every other mammal on Earth. That contrast matters because the new remains do more than add another strange detail to an already strange animal. They suggest the platypus body plan had settled into something close to its modern form by the late Oligocene, around 25 million years ago, even before the living species lost its teeth. “Platypuses are extremely rare in the fossil record and are often restricted to teeth, so it’s exciting to find new material and learn more about these unique mammals,” said study co-author Dr. Aaron Camens of Flinders University. Palaeontologists found one fossil at the Billeroo Creek site in 2017. (CREDIT: Aaron Camens) …

Let’s learn about the platypus

Let’s learn about the platypus

Published by skeptic

Even a brief glance reveals that the platypus is a pretty weird creature. It looks sort of like a beaver that tried to disguise itself as a duck. In fact, the first naturalist who described this iconic Australian mammal for science initially thought the first specimen he saw was fake. But however strange platypuses look, they get even stranger. Here are five surprising facts about these oddball animals: They lay eggs: Platypuses belong to a small group of mammals called monotremes. The only monotremes that exist today are platypuses and four species of echidnas. These five species of monotremes all lay eggs. But like mammals that give birth to live young, platypuses nurse their babies. They don’t have nipples, though. Instead, mama platypuses simply “sweat” their milk. See all the entries from our Let’s Learn About series They sense electricity: Special receptors in platypus bills allow them to sense electrical signals from moving prey underwater. This helps platypuses find insects, worms and other grub in the rivers and streams where they hunt. Echidnas and other …

JWST finds nine category-defying objects. Have astronomers found their “platypus?”

JWST finds nine category-defying objects. Have astronomers found their “platypus?”

Published by Jenni Sidey

Sign up for the Starts With a Bang newsletter Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all. In the animal kingdom, one of the most bizarre discoveries of all-time was the platypus. When reports of the platypus reached the western hemisphere, most leading naturalists at the time assumed it was a hoax, including the first European scientists to examine a specimen in 1799. It was an animal that laid eggs, yet it was a mammal. It had the bill of a duck, but the tail of a beaver. It had (at least, the males do) venomous spurs on their hind legs, but also the ability to locate other creatures in the water through a specialized sense known as electroreception, common in sharks but very rare among mammals. And yet, the platypus exists with all of these properties, even if it would take decades (or more than a century) before we understood how such a creature could come to exist. Astronomers have just encountered a very similar situation by …