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Description
Platypuses! They are awesome. They are monotremes, like echidnas, which means that they have a cloaca, like birds and reptiles, and they also lay eggs. Platypuses in particular are also cool because their rubbery "duckbill" (quite different from a duck's in structure) is used for hunting underwater.. by detecting the electrical fields of their prey! Only a few animals are capable of electro-sensory perception, and no other mammals.
Male platypuses also have a spur on their feet (shown in the picture) that is venomous, but only during mating season (despite the fact that they don't use the spur for mating).
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the platypus females have mammary glands - but no nipples! Instead the glands are surrounded by a spongy substance that the baby platypuses nuzzle at with their bills, and the milk oozes out, like water from a sponge, and they lap it up. It sounds adorable, I wish they had a video of that somewhere.

My Mammalogy professor is pretty much in love with these guys, so he has probably somewhat influenced my perception of them, but they're still really awesome.

Description
Platypuses! They are awesome. They are monotremes, like echidnas, which means that they have a cloaca, like birds and reptiles, and they also lay eggs. Platypuses in particular are also cool because their rubbery "duckbill" (quite different from a duck's in structure) is used for hunting underwater.. by detecting the electrical fields of their prey! Only a few animals are capable of electro-sensory perception, and no other mammals.
Male platypuses also have a spur on their feet (shown in the picture) that is venomous, but only during mating season (despite the fact that they don't use the spur for mating).
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the platypus females have mammary glands - but no nipples! Instead the glands are surrounded by a spongy substance that the baby platypuses nuzzle at with their bills, and the milk oozes out, like water from a sponge, and they lap it up. It sounds adorable, I wish they had a video of that somewhere.

My Mammalogy professor is pretty much in love with these guys, so he has probably somewhat influenced my perception of them, but they're still really awesome.