#PLATYPUS LAY EGGS FULL#

That is thanks to an amazing form of nourishment that is a defining feature of all mammals: milk. Only five species of animals share this extraordinary egg-laying trait: the duck-billed platypus, and four echidna species, the western long-beaked echidna.

#PLATYPUS LAY EGGS FULL#

Four months after hatching, a youngster emerges from the burrow for the first time and already it has grown to almost full adult size. Platypus young develop without having to leave their mother's burrow. Baby platypuses hatch after 10 days and nurse for up to four months before they swim off and forage on their own.

They need a lot more nourishment if they're going to grow and survive. The female platypus lays her eggs in an underground burrow that she digs near the water’s edge. The platypus may be one of the strangest mammals in the world. Their eggs are smaller, containing only a limited amount of yolk, and their young hatch in a far less developed state. Not only do these mammals lay eggs (just like all other monotremes) they also have a bird-like. The reptile embryo feeds on a supply of highly nutritious yolk and, by the time the embryo hatches, it is sufficiently well-developed to go looking for food on its own.īy contrast, the platypus and echidna are very different from their reptilian ancestors. They are the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to li. Early mammals must have laid eggs in the same way, a feature that they inherited from their reptile ancestors. Platypus and echidna are very strange animals, probably the strangest animals on Earth. This echidna egg (Figure 15) is tiny, only about the size of a marble. For 85 years, European naturalists had been attempting to find proof that platypuses and echidnas lay eggs - including by asking Aboriginal Australians - but any results they sent home were. Figure 15 An echidna eggĪn extraordinary feature of monotremes that no other modern mammal has retained is that they lay eggs.

The egg is spherical and the diameter is less than the width of a finger. There is only one species of platypus left on. Monotremes are a select group of creatures. Monotreme means a multi-purpose aperture in their back end that is used for both waste and reproduction. Mammals who lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young are called monotremes. An echidna egg resting in the palm of a human hand. Eggs are synonymous with birds, however, some mammals can lay eggs.

Platypus lay eggs