How tall is a duck billed platypus

These are features that appear closer to those of a duck than to those of any known mammal. The webbing is more significant on the front feet and is folded back when walking on land. Unlike a birds beak in which both the upper and lower parts of the beak separate to reveal its mouth , the snout of the Platypus is a sensory organ with the mouth on the underside. Their nostrils are located on the dorsal surface of the snout while the eyes and ears are located in a groove set just back from it.

This groove is closed when swimming. Platypuses have been heard to emit a low growl when disturbed and a range of other vocalisations have been reported in captive specimens.

The weight of the Duck-billed Platypus varies considerably from grams 1. Males average 50 centimetres 20 inches total length while females average 43 centimetres 17 inches. There is a great variation in size depending on the region in which the Platypus lives, and this pattern does not seem to follow any particular climate rule and may be due to other environmental factors such as predation and human residence.

The Platypus has extra bones in the shoulder girdle which are not found in any other mammals. Platypuses are Monotremes, the only mammals known to have a sense of electro reception the ability to receive and make use of electrical impulses. Their electro reception is the most sensitive of any monotreme. The electro receptors of the Platypus are located in rostro-caudal rows in the skin of the bill.

The Platypus can determine the direction of an electric source, perhaps by comparing differences in signal strength across the sheet of electro receptors. The Platypus feeds by digging in the bottom of streams with its bill.

The electro receptors could be used to distinguish live and dead objects in this situation. When disturbed, its prey would generate tiny electrical currents in their muscular contractions which the sensitive electro receptors of the Platypus could detect.

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Travel The last artists crafting a Thai royal treasure. She then incubates the eggs for possibly 10 days, after which the lactation period lasts for months before the young emerge from the burrow. Platypuses are long-lived animals both in captivity and in the wild, living up to approximately 20 years. The breeding season of the Platypus varies with distribution and within populations. Mating normally takes place between August to October in New South Wales and Victoria, and lactating females were observed between September and March.

The knowledge of the breeding behaviour generally comes from observations of animals in captivity. In winter when the water is still cold males initiate mating interactions. The behaviour last from less than a minute to over half an hour and is usually repeated over several days.

After mating, a pregnant female builds a nest in a long complex burrow possibly re-worked by several females in different seasons in less than a week. She spends further days collecting wet nesting material to prevent her eggs and hatchlings from drying out. During the egg incubation period, a female holds the eggs pressed by her tail to her belly, while curled up.

The female spends most of this time with her young in the burrow, and as the young grow, she increasingly leaves them to forage. Towards the end of the summer the young emerge from the burrow and their fate as young independent animals is still largely unknown.

The Platypus is protected by legislation in all of the states that it occurs in. Individuals cannot be captured or killed, except for scientific research. The Platypus is a common species with very little apparent change in its historical distribution except in South Australia.

However, there is a general lack of knowledge in the species abundance at local catchment levels to predict population trends. The dependence of Platypuses on the established freshwater systems may lead to their decline in future.

Platypuses spend most of their time in water or their burrow, so it is difficult to determine their predators. There have been anecdotal reports of the species being predated on by crocodiles, goannas, carpet pythons, eagles and large native fish. In addition, it is likely that foxes, and possibly dogs or dingoes kill Platypuses that move on land or in shallow waters. Platypuses have a number of ectoparasites in the wild, including their own tick species, Ixodes ornithothynchi.

The tick is often found around the hind limbs, and in smaller numbers on the front legs and in the body fur. Severe skin ulcers caused by the amphibian fungal infection have been reported in Tasmanian Platypuses in particular. The fungus can be fatal to the animal if it invades other tissues, particularly the lungs. Male Platypuses have a calcaneous, sharp spur about 12 millimetres long on each ankle.

The spur is connected via a long duct to a gland that produces venom, particularly in the breeding season. The venom can cause severe pain to humans, and although not lethal, the pain caused has been described as excruciating. Swelling rapidly develops around the wound and gradually spreads throughout the affected limb.

Information obtained from case histories and anecdotal evidence indicates that the pain develops into a long-lasting hyperalgesia temporary increased sensitivity to pain that persists for days or even months. Therefore, if there is a need to handle a Platypus helping an injured animal for instance , it should always be picked up by the end half of the tail to avoid the spur in case it is a male. The fossil record for monotremes is poor in comparison to that of other groups of mammals, and until recently little was known about their evolutionary history.

Several fossil discoveries since the early s have shed some light on the origins of monotremes. We now know that monotremes were present in Australia during the Mesozoic Era, when Australia was still part of the supercontinent, Gondwana.

Four species related to Platypus have been found in fossil deposits from Australia, including a complete skull of Obdurodon dicksoni and an opalised jaw fragment of Steropodon galmani.

The latter is million years old and represents one of Australia's oldest mammals. The only evidence that Platypus ancestors were once present outside Australia came in , when a million year old fossil tooth was found in Patagonia, in southern Argentina. Studies of these fossils indicate that the one remaining living species of Platypus is more specialised than its predecessors. It is smaller, its functional teeth have been replaced by horny pads and other aspects of its anatomy appear simpler.

It also appears to have a more restricted distribution, being confined to the river systems of eastern Australia. Although Platypus remains widespread and reasonably common, this trend towards increasing specialisation suggests that it may be moving out onto an evolutionary 'limb' and that its current status should not be taken for granted.

Grant, T.