Download Platypus

Whitney Gunn
David Coleman
John Rice
Platypus Facts
 Common Name: Platypus
 Scientific Name: Ornithorhynchus anatinus
 They live for about 10 to 15 years
 Natural habitat is East Australia and New
Guinea
 Carnivorous diet
 Call sound
History
 Estimate of the MonotremesTheria divergence, time range
between 160 and 120 Myr ago.
 The red line shows these are small
mammals that developed hair,
lactation, and homoeothermic.
Characteristics
 Has spurs on its hind feet
 Platypus is one of the few venomous mammals.

The male platypus can delivers a poison through a spur on its
hind foot.
 Adults do not have teeth


Baby platypus are born with teeth this may be due to a
“throwback” from its ancestors. Once they lose them they do
not grow new teeth back.
Adults do not need teeth because they use horny pads to
grind their food.
Characteristics
 The have no true stomachs
 Female platypus lay eggs
•
She lays 1-3 eggs, which she incubates between her abdomen and
tail.
 Lactation

The female platypus do not have nipples, so it’s young ones suck
milk from patches on the abdomen
 Evolution of Platypus
Evolution
 Protamine P1 protein sequence
Evolution
P
Distance matrix DNA
Ech
Mou
Opo
Pla
Roo
Ech
Mou
0.7162
Opo
0.8040
0.7789
Pla
0.1030
0.7448
0.8037
Roo
0.9769
1.1324
1.2805
0.9405
Phylogenetic tree showing the
relationships between
monotremes, marsupials, and
mammals
Venomous Trait
 The venom is made up of at
least 19 different
substances
Lactation and Eggs
 It has been proposed that early
lactation evolved as a water
source to protect porous
parchment-shelled eggs from
desiccation during incubation or
as a protection against microbial
infection.
 Parchment-shelled egg-laying
monotremes also exhibit a more
ancestral glandular mammary
patch or areola without a nipple
that may still possess roles in egg
protection
Similarities
 Both are only found in
Australia and New Guinea
 Monotreme means "one-
holed," referring to the
cloaca, a single hole that
serves the urinary tract,
anus, and reproductive
tract in monotremes.
 Both lay eggs
Differences
Echidna
Platypus
 Has a point snout
 Has duck like bill
 Pointy spines on coat
 Short dark brown fur
Further Studies
 Recently scientist have been taking the platypus genome
and comparing it to humans.
 A study on why they secret milk through their abdominal
muscles instead of through nipples would be helpful to
further understand its evolutionary process.
References
 http://assets0.pubget.com/pdf/8269934.pdf
 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7192/p
df/nature06936.pdf
Picture Sources
 http://soer.justice.tas.gov.au/2003/image/559/ilw/p-
platypus_m.jpg
 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7192/p
df/nature06936.pdf