Do Platypus Sweat Milk? Credit: hobvias sudoneighm CC-BY It has preserved many of its ancestors’ original features - which probably contribute to its success in adapting to the environment they live in,” But genetically, it is a mixture of mammals, birds, and reptiles. “Indeed, the platypus belongs to the Mammalia class. In this ancient group, the 2 mammals that lay eggs are the platypus and the echidna. In fact, monotremes existed millions of years before the emergence of any modern-day mammal. Still, there is fossil evidence that they were once more widespread. The only monotreme animals are found in Australia and New Guinea. Monotremes are one of the three groups of living mammals, the others being placenta-bearing animals and marsupials. Said biology professor Guojie Zhang, University of Copenhagen. It holds the key as to why we and other Eutheria mammals evolved to become animals that give birth to live young instead of egg-laying animals,” At the same time, decoding the genome for platypus is important for improving our understanding of how other mammals evolved-including us humans. “The complete genome has provided us with the answers to how a few of the platypus’ bizarre features emerged. They aimed to investigate how these became two of the world’s oddest mammals. In 2021, an international team of scientists created a genome map of the platypus, along with one for the only other egg-laying mammal, the echidna ( Tachyglossus aculeatus). It lays eggs instead of giving birth to live babies like other mammals it sweats milk has venomous spurs, and is the only animal with 10 sex chromosomes. Now that it is recognized as a real species, Ornithorhynchus anatinus still confuses scientists. It had the beak of a duck, the tail of a beaver, webbed feet on four stumpy legs, and the furry body of an otter or mole, perhaps. When Europeans first came upon it in the 1700s, naturalists believed Australia’s duck billed platypus must be a hoax, stitched together by some prankster taxidermist.
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