15 Interesting Platypus Facts You Need To Know

It’s been a long day at work. You’ve had a lot of stress from the hustling and bustling and decide to take a walk. As you stroll down the park admiring the beautiful creatures that call it their home, your eyes come across a weird-looking animal.

It looks like a beaver, but something is egregiously wrong. How can a beaver have the beak of a duck? Immediately, you sprint home, hyperventilating and shivering. Well, you need to go out and touch some grass more often.

The Platypus is an animal whose existence made scientists rethink their approach to biology. Even after its discovery, many prominent researchers refused to admit that an animal like it could exist. Today, we will be learning 15 interesting facts about the Platypus. So, relax and join us on the ride.

Taxonomy and Flash Facts

It’s All A Hoax

Before the Western world discovered the Platypus, it lived in Australia and was popular among the Aborigines. However, in the late 18th century, the first Western explorers came across the Duckbilled Platypus.

Though, in most cases, the discovery of a new species leads to immense thrill in the scientific community, the animal’s existence did the opposite of that.

The scientists who discovered its existence claimed it was a fake creature. They said no animal could resemble it as the Platypus looked like multiple creatures sutured together. Eventually, after struggling with reality, scientists accepted that the Platypus was indeed an animal.

80 Years To Make A Decision

When you learned scientists eventually agreed the Platypus was a new kind of animal, how long did you think it took? 5 years? Maybe 10? Well, it took over 80 years before taxonomists and biologists decided what the Platypus was.

They kept discovering weird details about the animal, putting it in multiple animal classes. With each discovery, it seemed to fit into a separate class. So, deciding what they were became a daunting task that kept biologists occupied for the next eight decades. Finally, they entered the class of Mammals.

They Have skin Nipples

Wait, That didn’t sound right. Are we talking of an alien creature with tentacles and a massive green head? Skin nipples? What the heck does that even mean?

If you thought we had scratched the surface of what made scientists so boggled about the Platypus, you should strictly reconsider your thoughts.

After discovering the Duckbilled Platypus, scientists noticed they had no nipples to nurse their young, and for the next 100-plus years, it was common knowledge that they did not nurse their babies.

However, in the 1830s, a discovery came to light and shook the foundations of biology. Scientists learned they nurse their young using a specialized skin that dispenses milk from mammary gland ducts. Essentially, skin nipples.

Is The Platypus Venomous?

You may have seen an image of a Platypus online and must have thought: ‘Aww, how cute, maybe I could get one.’ Hold up, before getting one, you should know that Platypuses, well, the males, are venomous. I know it isn’t fair, but that’s true.

Male Platypuses are venomous and, their sting could deliver enough venom to incapacitate a human for weeks. Though it won’t likely kill you, it will cause a lot of pain.

The Platypus’s venom is fatal to dogs, so keep them away from your beloved pet.

Males developed venom to fight other males during mating season. Talk of a gladiator match.

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Egg Layers

Hold up on your fork and plate before thinking of having scrambled Platypus eggs. That’s right, besides being a weird mammal with skin nipples, they also pop out eggs.

Platypuses belong to the order Monotremata, containing the only mammals that lay eggs, five species to be precise. You thought it couldn’t get any weirder, didn’t you?

Though it may be tempting to the weirdest persons out there, the Platypus’s eggs are so small that getting some satisfaction from eating them will take a bunch.

They Have no Dentition

Brushing your teeth must feel so good, right? Is there any better feeling than seeing your white teeth glow? Tell us in the comments if there is. Life may seem slightly unfair for the Platypus as it doesn’t have teeth.

To chew its food, it has to pick up gravel and use it to mash everything before swallowing. That’s like a human using stones to digest bread. Phew, thank goodness we all have teeth. Wait, do we all have teeth? Or is that a story for another day?

Hunted

Sigh, humans can’t stop hunting everything they set their eyes on, right? Luckily, you’re an alien reading this from a planet 10,000 light-years from Earth, right?

Before becoming a legally protected species, people hunted Platypuses for their fur. However, a new legislature protecting the animals made them escape the endangered species category. They are in the ‘Near Threatened’ category. Humans, am I right?

How Strong are Their Beaks?

Since the Platypus has a duck-like-looking beak, people may assume it is as strong as a duck. However, the opposite is the case. The animals use their beak to detect food, not eat it. So it is soft, wet, and feels like rubber.

Wait, No Stomach?

As weird as it may sound, Platypuses have no stomach. How can an organism have no teeth and still have no stomach? How does it digest food?

Don’t be troubled for the Platypus. Even though it has no organ taking on the role of a stomach, it still has an alimentary canal where all digestion occurs.

Like most mammals, it also excretes waste after absorbing the needed nutrients.

A Milk To Cure Superbugs

The Platypus keeps surprising us when we think it can’t get weirder. Because the female secretes milk on her skin, she produces antibodies to protect her children from infection.

Scientists discovered these antibodies may be the key to solving one of medicine’s looming problems. Superbugs.

Superbugs are normal microbes resistant to the usual treatments used against them.

Some scientists say the special Shirley Temple quirk in the Platypus’s milk protein structure may be the key to fighting superbugs. What a weird superpower.

A Cloaca?

Yes, a cloaca. Platypuses are in the rare category of mammals with cloacas. The male has internal testicles and a cloaca alongside the female.

When mating, the male climbs the female, and both animals connect their cloacas. Doesn’t that sound weird? With the Platypus, everything is.

Glowing In The Dark

What could make an animal weirder besides laying eggs as a mammal, having no teeth and no stomach? Nothing at all, right? Hold up a minute. There is something.

When placed under ultraviolet light, the Platypus’s fur glows bluish-green.

There it is, the evidence we’ve been waiting for. No one can now argue that these animals weren’t mistakenly dropped by a green-headed alien who had too many drinks and mistakenly landed on Earth.

Are They Related to Ducks?

You have been waiting for this moment where you finally learn, once and for all if the Platypus is a relative of the animal it somehow resembles.

With all the evidence, like webbed feet and a beak, it is a strong argument that these animals relate to ducks.

However, they are not. Platypuses are not related to ducks or even beavers in any way. Their nearest relative is the Echidna, which belongs to the same order, Monotremata (mammals that lay eggs).

Ok, So We Got XX, XY… Wait You Mean There’s 8 More?

If you’ve ever had the honor of learning in a biology class, you’d know that humans have two sex chromosomes determining gender, XX and XY. For most mammals, two is the norm. Guess who decided to follow a separate route? Of course, it’s the Platypus; this animal has 10 sex chromosomes. What a weird evolution.

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I See Something In The Shadows. It Looks Like, OMG… Batman? Oh, Nope, It’s a Platypus.

Let me introduce you to a friend if you’re a night owl, the Platypus.

These animals are nocturnal as they are active at night. Though you can spot them in the early hours of the morning or early evenings, they operate in the dark. Doesn’t that sound ninja-like in your ears?

All that remains is a cape, a technology-enhanced belt, and a mask.

Conclusion

That’s all we have for today, ladies and gents. We hope you had a lot of fun learning about the mysterious Platypus. Don’t forget to check out other articles about Axolotls. If you enjoyed this article, don’t forget to comment and share. Till we meet again to learn something incredible.