by Matthew Cobb
I dunno, maybe I’m late to the party and everyone knows, but I had no idea… The ‘stuff’ is leaves, which it will use for its nest. Amazing.
Platypuses can carry stuff *with their tail*
May 8, 2015 • 2:04 pm
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
I didn’t know that! Amazing.
I didn’t realize their tales were so flexible. I figured they were more rigid.
Same here.
+1
Cool. Add Archaeornithura meemannae and swimming tortoises to that and I’ve learned a lot today.
Who needs opposable thumbs?
Yeah…but do you really want to hold everything up against your butt?
b&
Well…it’d work for using toilet paper, provided the roll was in the correct orientation in the first place. But what do I know, I’m just a tailless ape.
I think that’s only developed since Oz banned plastic shopping bags.
Wonderful creatures – and thanks to WEIT I’ve learned a dozen or so wonderful things about them in just the last few months. Including this!
…before breakfast in my case.
Sub
Well, platypuses just got weirder. Next we will learn that they have venom 😗
… such as here…. yikes!
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/platypus/
I wonder if they carry other things in their pouches when those are not being used as incubators.
From that link:
” A mother typically produces one or two eggs and keeps them warm by holding them between her body and her tail. “
Seems both the eggs and the nest might thereby be marked with the mama’s scent. Maybe that helps the young feel safe, when they start hanging out freely in the nest or at least find their way home if they wander too far after a butterfly.
Yeah, platypuses don’t have pouches. They lay eggs.
Thanks for that, both of you. I know they lay eggs but I mistakenly thought/misremembered that they had a pouch to stash the babies which are only the size of lima beans when they hatch.
They might have a fold of belly skin for that. I am not sure.
Good question. They certainly have belly grooves where secreted milk pools for the babies to lap up. No nipples for suckling.
The babies do in fact suck, not lap. Just as you’d do if you spilt a drink on somebody’s hairy belly and didn’t want to waste it (our tongues are no better for lapping than platys’ are).
Wow, tucked under the tail. Now that did surprise me!
What a marvelous creature!
I had no idea!
I had no idea! Weird monotreme gets weirder. And isn’t the diversity of nature amazing!
Amazed..
😃Why do I think some people put cigarettes on their ears. :)… And drug smugglers…
Cool move, platycat!
A swimming mammal with a duck bill that lays eggs, makes nests, has venom, and carries stuff with its tail?
The Victorians who saw the first specimen thought it was a fake and they hadn’t even heard about the last bit.
G*d must have created platypii first, when he was trying out all the features. Obviously it was Critter v.0.1 beta, not designed for general release, and it must have escaped somehow.
Maybe the coolest thing is that our North American opossums (Didelphis) do that too…wonder if carrying nest materials with the tail is a mammalian trait, lost in placentals (or is it)?