Platypus Warrior

About Platypus Warrior

The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypic taxon of its family Ornithorhynchidae and genus Ornithorhynchus, though a number of related species appear in the fossil record.

Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. Like other monotremes, the platypus senses prey in cloudy water through electrolocation. It is one of the few species of venomous mammals, as the male platypus has a spur on the hind foot that delivers an extremely painful venom.

The unusual appearance of this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal at first baffled European naturalists. In 1799, the first scientists to examine a preserved platypus body judged it a fake made of several animals sewn together.