![]() These oddball mammals have furry bodies flat and hairless beaver-like tails webbed feet (males also have spurs on their hind legs that are loaded with venom) and broad bills like a duck's. Platypuses are semiaquatic and live in eastern Australia, and they are such a peculiar hodgepodge of body parts that they seem cobbled together from unrelated animals so perhaps fittingly, their scientific name, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, means bird-snouted flat-foot, according to London's Natural History Museum (NHM). "We all agreed that we should explore this idea." "Plus, who doesn’t want to examine a platypus specimen?" he added. This made platypuses promising candidates for finding biofluorescence in monotremes, Olson told Live Science in an email. The researchers knew that platypuses - like flying squirrels - were active at night and during twilight, when an eerie glow would be visible. "We were preparing for our second day at the Field Museum in Chicago to document biofluorescence in New World flying squirrels, and I started wondering how broadly distributed this trait might be within the animal kingdom," said Erik Olson, co-author of the new study and an associate professor of natural resources at Northland College. ![]() ![]() While testing the flying squirrel museum specimens for signs of biofluorescence, they decided to look at other mammal species in the same collections too, according to a statement. Kohler, then an undergraduate at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, and her colleagues reported their results on Jan. After 3-4 months, towards the end of the summer, the young emerge from the burrow as young independent animals.Study co-author Allison Kohler, a doctoral candidate in the Texas A&M University Wildlife and Fisheries Department in College Station, Texas, had previously tested museum specimens of flying squirrels and found that all three North American species - the northern flying squirrel ( Glaucomys sabrinus), the southern flying squirrel ( Glaucomys volans) and the Humboldt’s flying squirrel ( Glaucomys oregonensis) - glowed bright pink in UV light. The female spends most of this time with her young in the burrow, and as the young grow she increasingly leaves them to forage. Gestation lasts 21 days and during this egg incubation period, a female holds 1-3 eggs pressed by her tail to her belly, while curled up.Ĭare for young: When the young hatch, the female starts secreting milk and the young Platypuses suckle from the two milk patches covered by fur on the female’s abdomen. She spends a further 4-5 days collecting wet nesting material to prevent her eggs and hatchlings from drying out. Gestation: After mating, a pregnant female builds a nest in a long complex burrow in less than a week. Mating: Platypus reach sexual maturity around 2 years of age. They store their food in their cheek-pouches then chew the food using horny, grinding plates, while they float to rest on the water surface. They forage most of their food from the bottom of the river however they occasionally catch cicadas and moths from the water surface. Size: Males 50cm in length and females 43 cm in length.ĭiet: Platypus are carnivores and feed on aquatic invertebrates such as insect larvae, shrimps, swimming beetles, water bugs, tadpoles, worms, freshwater pea mussels and snails. Life Span: Average life span is between 4-8 years, although they have lived as long as 17years in zoos. Habitat: Platypus are semi aquatic mammals living in fresh water streams, lakes and river systems and creating burrows for shelter and protection. They are also occasionally found in South Australia. Taronga Institute of Science & Learningĭistribution: Platypus can be found along the East Coast of mainland Australia, including Tasmania.
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