A platypus has a bill like a duck and fur like a mammal. It lives in and around freshwater in eastern Australia and Tasmania.
Fun fact: A platypus closes its eyes, ears, and nostrils while diving.
Meet an unusual Australian mammal that swims, lays eggs, and feeds its young milk.
What Makes a Platypus Special?
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Most mammals give birth to live young. A female platypus lays eggs instead and keeps them warm in a burrow.
Fun fact: Platypus eggs are much smaller and softer than a chicken's egg.
When the young hatch, their mother feeds them milk. That is one of the clues that tells us a platypus is a mammal, even though it lays eggs.
Fun fact: A platypus mother does not have nipples; milk gathers in grooves on her skin and fur.
Platypuses belong to a small group of egg-laying mammals called monotremes. Echidnas belong to that group too. Nature does not always fit our first guesses!
Fun fact: Only five living monotreme species are known: one platypus and four echidnas.