Australian Wildlife: Difference between revisions

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== Monotremes and Placental Mammals ==

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100102030534/http://webecoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/platypus.jpg Platypus.] [[Everything's Better with Platypi|Famous the world over]] for looking like a real [[Mix and Match Critter]]. Duck-bill (with built-in electric field sensors, yet) used to look for shellfish in the mud, ducklike feet, a furred body resembling an otter's, and a tail like a beaver's. The real kicker is that it's only one of ''two'' (or five, counting individual echidna species) living mammals that ''lay eggs''. The male of the species also has a spur on its hind legs that delivers a neurotoxin. It won't kill a human but will cause excruciating pain that can last for a long time, and can recur up to a year later. Appears on the Australian 20 cent coin.

** Incidentally, when news of the platypus first reached Europe scientists believed it was naught but an elaborate hoax created by taxidermists sewing parts from different animals together.