Why is a platypus a mammal when it lays eggs?

Answer 1

Platypuses (and echidnas) are members of a quite different order of mammals known as monotremes. They are egg-laying mammals, but still classified as mammals since they nurture their young with mothers' milk. They also share other characteristics with mammals, such as being warm-blooded, having fur, skin or hair, and breathing via lungs rather than gills

Answer 2

Platypuses are still classified as mammals because they feed their young on mothers' milk - a characteristic unique to mammals alone.

Other characteristics which platypuses share with other mammals are the fact that they are warm-blooded vertebrates which breathe air via lungs, not gills. Also, they have fur; all mammals have skin, fur or hair. They also have a four-chambered heart.

Answer 3

Platypuses (and echidnas) are members of a quite different order of mammals known as monotremes. They are egg-laying mammals, but still classified as mammals since they nurture their young with mothers' milk. They also share other characteristics with mammals, such as being warm-blooded, having fur, skin or hair, and breathing via lungs rather than gills.

Answer 4

Because the platypus is unique. Though the platypus lays eggs, as a mammal, it suckles its young. When the Australian continent separated and drifted away, many animals became isolated on that continent, and developed in different ways. Australia is the home of several species of marsupials (pouched animals) for instance.

Answer 5

This is simply the means by which a platypus (and the echidna) reproduce. They are monotremes, or egg-laying mammals. They are still classified as mammals because they feed their young on mothers' milk - a characteristic unique to mammals.