What is the difference between platypus and spiny anteater?

Answer 1

There are several differences between anteaters and spiny anteaters, better known as echidnas.

• Spiny anteaters are also known as echidnas and they are native to Australia, with another species found on the island of New Guinea, and they are distantly related to the platypus. True anteaters are native to South America and are related to armadillos.
• Like their name implies, spiny anteaters are covered covered with a layer of fur and many sharp quills, which are one of their main defenses. True anteaters are covereds in fur.
• Echidnas have a very wide range of habitat - they are able to live in deserts, grasslands, forests, suburban fringes, coastal heath, rainforest, mulga scrub, even sub-alpine mountainsides. Anteaters are restricted to grasslands, forests and rainforests.
• Echidnas are one of that unique group of mammals known as "monotremes", or egg-laying mammals (the platypus also belongs to this group). During breeding season, the female develops a rudimentary pouch, into which she lays a single egg, where it is incubated. Anteaters are placental mammals, giving birth to live young.
• The only two similarities between true anteaters and echidnas is 1. their diet, consisting mostly of termites, extending to ants, and occasionally to insect larvae. 2. Another similarity is that they are both mammals, i.e. warmblooded vertebrates which feed their young on mothers' milk.

Answer 2

There are many differences between anteaters and echidnas.

• Echidnas are native to Australia, with another species found on the island of New Guinea, and they are distantly related to the platypus. True anteaters are native to South America and are related to armadillos.
• Like their name implies, spiny anteaters are covered covered with a layer of fur and many sharp quills, which are one of their main defenses. True anteaters are covereds in fur.
• Echidnas have a very wide range of habitat - they are able to live in deserts, grasslands, forests, suburban fringes, coastal heath, rainforest, mulga scrub, even sub-alpine mountainsides. Anteaters are restricted to grasslands, forests and rainforests.
• Echidnas are one of that unique group of mammals known as "monotremes", or egg-laying mammals (the platypus also belongs to this group). During breeding season, the female develops a rudimentary pouch, into which she lays a single egg, where it is incubated. Anteaters are placental mammals, giving birth to live young.
• The only two similarities between true anteaters and echidnas is 1. their diet, consisting mostly of termites, extending to ants, and occasionally to insect larvae. 2. Another similarity is that they are both mammals, i.e. warmblooded vertebrates which feed their young on mothers' milk.

Answer 3

The spiny anteater is more properly known as an echidna. Platypuses and echidnas have several things in common, and several differences.

• They are both monotremes, egg-laying mammals.
• Both can swim, but a major difference is that the platypus is semi-aquatic, while the echidna lives on land.
• Both animals can be found from trpoical northern regions of Australia down to sub-alpine regions of Tasmania. A difference is that the echidna can also survive quite well in semi-arid areas.
• Both have strong claws for digging burrows for shelter, but the platypus also has a retractable membrane between its claws, which helps it to swim.
• The platypus does not have a pouch, but the echidna develops a temporary pouch (more like a fold of skin) in which it lays and incubates its eggs. The platypus lays and incubates its eggs in a chamber dug in the side of the riverbank.
• An echidna usually lays justa single egg, whilst a platypus may lay one to three eggs.
• A major difference is their external appearance. The echidna has quills whilst the platypus has dense, waterproof fur.
• Both the male platypus and the male echidna have a spur on their hind ankle, but the platypus's is poisonous whilst the echidna's serves no known function.
• Neither echidnas nor platypuses have teeth. The platypus grinds its food between bony plates in its bill, whilst the echidna uses its long, sticky tongue to catch and eat termites and ants.