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The Platypus: Australia's most outstanding animal: a thread. 1/16
The platypus is carnivorous, eating a diet of worms, shrimp, crayfish, and insect larvae. 2/16
The male platypus is venomous, with spurs behind each hind leg. The venom is painful but non-fatal to humans. 3/16
Female platypuses are not venomous, but do develop vestigual hind spur buds. 4/16
Platypuses use electro-reception to hunt underwater: they sense the electrical charge of muscle exertion in their prey. 5/16
When walking on land, the platypus walks on its knuckles to avoid damaging the webbing between its fingers.
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Unlike the overwhelming majority of mammals, platypus eyes contain double cones - making them more like the eyes of lampreys that of other mammals. 7/16
Platypuses use their front legs to swim, and their hind legs and tail to steer. The tail also contains fat reserves. 8/16
The female platypus lays 2-3 eggs at a time. She has two ovaries, but only the left one is functional. 9/16
Platypuses do not have nipples. The female sweats milk. 10/16
Most mammals have two chromosomes. The platypus has 10: five pairs of X and Y. 11/16
Platypuses are born with teeth, but soon lose them. As adults they chew with keratinised pads akin to fingernails or callouses. 12/16
Platypuses are not fans of much human music, save for 1960s avant-garde jazz. They abhor hip-hop. 13/16
Due to an administrative error by the Federal government in 1922, a platypus named Barry was accidentally listed on a Senate election ballot in Queensland. He finished third. 14/16
Platypuses are not born with their bills; they must wrest them from wood ducks at the age of two in a rudimentary rite of passage. 15/16
All Australian children are educated at a young age of the risk of platypus attack, and drills are regularly run in schools to prepare for the bi-annual platypus swarms that affect river-side suburbs. 16/16
