Good afternoon, dear visitors of our site! Today, the administrator asked to talk about one of the most amazing animals of our planet, the platypus. This topic came not by chance. In a new study, researchers from the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) investigate the risks of extinction of this interesting animal (see the article in ScienceDirect). Their conclusions were very sad. According to the researchers, the number of platypus and habitat in the next 50 years may decrease by approximately 57% and 27%, respectively. The main reasons for the gradual extinction of this species are drought, environmental pollution, land clearing, and construction of dams that destroy their habitat.
However, some of our readers may ask a reasonable question. The disappearance of animals, in principle, is very regrettable, but common phenomenon. What makes the platypus so unique that the “Take in Mind” administrator is so concerned about its disappearance?
Of course, our administrator is a very compassionate person, but this is absolutely not associated to the fact that the platypus is one of the most unique animal in the world.
Here are few amazing facts about these amazing animals:
- In platypuses, the outlets of the genitals, bladder and intestines open into the common cloaca, therefore they are called monotreme.
- The internal structure of the beak does not resemble the structure of a bird’s beak; the platypus has quite animal jaws, they are just covered with skin from the outside. At the same time, adult platypuses have no teeth or auricles, and one of the ovaries is underdeveloped and does not function – these are the birds’ characteristics.
- The platypus has a low temperature compared to other warm-blooded ones – only 32 ° C. However, platypus is perfectly able to regulate its body temperature due to an increase in metabolic rate by more than 3 times.
- The platypus is one of the few poisonous mammals. Young platypuses of both genders have the rudiments of horn spurs on the hind legs. In females, the spurs disappear by the age of one year, while in males they continue to grow, reaching 1.2-1.5 cm in length by the time of puberty. Each spur is connected by a duct to the femoral gland, which during the mating season produces a complex “cocktail” of poisons. Males use spurs during mating fights. The platypus venom can kill a small animal; for humans, it is not fatal, but causes severe pain.
- The platypus is the only mammal that has developed electroreception. The skin of the beak is rich in nerve endings, and this provides the platypus with not only a highly developed sense of touch, but also the ability to locate. Beak electroreceptors can detect weak electric fields, which occur, for example, when crustacean muscles are contracted, which helps the platypus in search of prey.
- Features of genetics: the platypus has 10 sex chromosomes, and not two (XY), like most mammals. Accordingly, the female carries the combination XXXXXXXXXX, and the male – XYXYXYXYXY. All sex chromosomes are connected into a single complex, therefore, with meiosis in males, spermatozoa with chains XXXXX or YYYYY are formed. When sperm XXXXX fertilizes an egg, female platypuses are born, if sperm YYYYY is male platypuses. The five sex X chromosomes of the platypus are homologous to the bird Z-chromosome, but in birds, males carry two Z-chromosomes (ZZ), and females carry the W-chromosome and Z-chromosome (WZ). However, the SRY gene (a key gene for sex determination in mammals) was not found in the platypus.
- The reproductive system of the male platypus is common in mammals, except that the testicles are inside the body, and there is also a bifurcated (many-headed) penis, which is also common for marsupials. The female reproductive system differs from that in placental animals and, in a number of ways, is more similar to the reproductive system of birds or reptiles.
- The platypus is not too fertile, the female lays 1-2 (rarely 3) eggs. The size of the egg of the platypus is only 1 cm. The female warms the eggs, curled up around them. The incubation period depends on temperature, from 7 to 10 days. The young duckbill hatch naked, blind and helpless, their length is 2.5 cm, but … with teeth! The teeth are preserved while the female feeds the cubs with milk, and then fall out! In all mammals, the opposite happens.
So, modern science shows that the platypus has numerous external, physiological and genetic characteristics inherent not only to mammals, but also to birds, reptiles, and possibly even fish (that is, there is a rational grain in the legends…).
Therefore, the question of the origin of the platypus is very relevant. According to the accepted classification, the platypus is assigned to a very small, special class of monotreme, and is the only specie in the family of platypuses. For many years, it was believed that the platypus developed in isolation (it is assumed that Australia (Gondwana) broke away from other continents approximately 225 million years ago). It is known that a modern adult living platypus has no teeth, but fossils found in Australia showed that its relatives still had teeth that were completely different from the teeth of other animals. Therefore, three fossilized teeth discovered in the early 1990s in South America, which turned out to be almost identical to the fossils of the teeth of the Australian platypus, refute the theory of isolation evolution. Moreover, paleontologists suggest that modern platypuses are not some evolutionary “transitional” form, but a preserved species from the once multi-species family of platypuses.
I think that all the questions about the need to defend this cool animals have disappeared even from skeptics… So, let’s protect the platypus, all of us together and each and every one of us!
However, in order not to leave you in such a sad mood, I want to share with you the fairy tale “Gaya-dari – the platypus” from the famous collection “Myths and Tales of Australia” edited by the Australian writer K. Langlo-Parker (1856–1940). Enjoy!
Gayardaree the Platypus
A YOUNG duck used to swim away by herself in the creek. Her tribe told her that Mulloka, the water devil, would catch her some day if she were so venturesome. But she did not heed them.
One day after having swum down some distance, she landed on a bank where she saw some young green grass. She was feeding about when suddenly out rushed from a hidden place Biggoon, an immense water rat, and seized her.
She struggled and struggled, but all in vain. “I live alone,” he said; “I want a wife.”
“Let me go,” said the duck; “I am not for you; my tribe have a mate for me.”
“You stay quietly with me, and I will not hurt you. I am lonely here. If you struggle more, or try to escape, I will knock you on the head, or spear you with this little spear I always carry.”
“But my tribe will come and fight you, and perhaps kill me.”
“Not they. They will think Mulloka has got you. But even if they do come, let them. I am ready.” And again he showed his spear.
The duck stayed. She was frightened to go while the rat watched her. She pretended that she liked her new life, and meant to stay always; while all the time she was thinking how she could escape. She knew her tribe came to look for her, for she heard them, but Biggoon kept her imprisoned in his hole in the side of the creek all day, only letting her out for a swim at night, when he knew her tribe would not come for fear of Mulloka.
She hid her feelngs so well that at last Biggoon thought she really was content with him, and gradually he gave up watching her, taking his long day sleep as of old. Then came her chance.
One day, when Biggoon was sound asleep, she slunk out of the burrow, slid into the creek, and swam away up it, as quickly as she could, towards her old camp.
Suddenly she heard a sound behind her; she thought it must be Biggoon, or perhaps the dreaded Mulloka, so, stiff as her wings were, she raised herself on them, and flew the rest of the way, alighting at length very tired amongst her tribe.
They all gabbled round her at once, hardly giving her time to answer them. When they heard where she had been, the old mother ducks warned all the younger ones only to swim up stream in the future, for Biggoon would surely have vowed vengeance against them all now, and they must not risk meeting him.
How that little duck enjoyed her liberty and being with her tribe again! How she splashed as she pleased in the creek in the daytime and flew about at night if she wished! She felt as if she never wanted to sleep again.
It was not long before the laying season came. The ducks all chose their nesting places, some in hollow trees, and some in mirrieh bushes. When the nests were all nicely lined with down feathers, the ducks laid their eggs. Then they sat patiently on them, until at last the little fluffy, downy ducks came out. Then in a little time the ducks in the trees took the ducklings on their backs and in their bills, and flew into the water with them, one at a time. Those in the mirrieh-bushes waddled out with their young ones after them.
In due course the duck who had been imprisoned by Biggoon hatched out her young, too. Her friends came swimming round the mirrieh-bush she was in, and said: “Come along. Bring out your young ones, too. Teach them to love the water as we do.”
Out she came, only two children after her. And what were they? Such a quacking gabble her friends set up, shrieking: “What are those?”
“My children,” she said proudly. She would not show that she, too, was puzzled at her children being quite different from those of her tribe. Instead of down feathers they had a soft fur. Instead of two feet they had four. Their bills were those of ducks, and their feet were webbed, and on the hind ones were just showing the points of a spear, like Biggoon always carried to be in readiness for his enemies.
“Take them away,” cried the ducks, flapping their wings and making a great splash. “Take them away. They are more like Biggoon than us. Look at their hind feet; the tip of his spear is sticking from them already. Take them away, or we shall kill them before they grow big and kill us. They do not belong to our tribe. Take them away. They have no right here.”
And such a row they made that the poor little mother duck went off with her two little despised children, of whom she had been so proud, despite their peculiarities. She did not know where to go. If she went down the creek, Biggoon might catch her again, and make her live in the burrow, or kill her children because they had webbed feet, a duck’s bill, and had been hatched out of eggs. He would say they did not belong to his tribe. No one would own them. There would never be any one but herself to care for them; the sooner she took them right away the better.
So thinking, away up stream she went until she reached the mountains. There she could hide from all who knew her, and bring up her children. On, on she went, until the creek grew narrow and scrubby on its banks, so changed from the broad streams which used to placidly flow between large unbroken plains, that she scarcely knew it. She lived there for a little while, then pined away and died, for even her children as they grew saw how different they were from her, and kept away by themselves, until she felt too lonely and miserable to live, too unhappy to find food. Thus pining she soon died away on the mountains, far from her old noorumbah, or hereditary hunting-ground.
The children lived on and throve, laid eggs and hatched out more children just like themselves, until at last, pair by pair, they so increased that all the mountain creeks had before long some of them. And there they still live, the Gayardaree, or platypus, quite a tribe apart—for when did ever a rat lay eggs? Or a duck have four feet?
Featured photo by http://animalsbirds.com