Monotremes

Platypuses and echidnas are the only mammals which lay eggs. However, they do not incubate them in a birdlike fashion.

The echidna curks up and lays her egg directly into a rudimentary pouch (little more than a flap of skin) which she develops during breeding season. The platypus digs a nesting chamber at the end of a long burrow, and after she has laid her eggs, she curls around them, keeping them close to her body duirng the ten-day incubation period.

Oh yes - monotremes are mammals, which means that they have hair (which is unique to mammals) and also nurse their young from mammary glands. Monotremes do lay soft, rubbery eggs, which is a behavior that is unique among mammals but they are strictly mammals regardless.

The monotreme family includes the echidna and the platypus.

During the breeding season, a female echidna develops a rudimentary pouch - just a flap of skin - on its abdomen. The female echidna manages to lay a single egg in its pouch, and incubates the egg there. When the young hatches, it is fed on mother's milk which seeps from milk glands, not teats like other mammals. When the young echidna begins to develop its spines, it is transferred to a burrow to continue its development. The mother still cares for it for many more months, teaching it to forage for termites and ants.

The mother platypus, on the other hand, prepares a chamber at the end of a burrow especially for the purpose of protecting the young. After she lays one to three eggs, which have already developed within her body for 28 days, she curls her body around the eggs to incubate them for another ten days.

After hatching, the mother platypus feeds her young on milk secreted from glands, rather than from teats. The young are blind, hairless and completely vulnerable. They are suckled by the mother for 3-4 months, during which time she only leaves them to forage for food. As she leaves the burrow, the mpther platypus makes several thin plugs made of soil along the length of burrow; this helps to protect the young from predators which would enter the burrow during the mother's absence. When she returns, she pushes past these plugs, thereby forcing water from her fur and helping to keep the chamber dry.

No. Placental mammals give live birth. The egg-laying mammals are known as monotremes, and belong to the order monotremata.

Yes, Bree. This is one of the weirdest animals, I think. Even though they are mammals, they do lay eggs, which is so bizarre imho. :) Mammals are a class of animals that all have mammary glands (boobies). ;) The next division down is order. Platypus are one of only 5 remaining species of the order, Monotremata, all of which lay eggs. No other mammals exist that lay eggs.

The only mammals which lay eggs are the small group known as monotremes. The smallest egg-laying mammal, or monotreme, is the platypus. The platypus weighs, at most, 1.7kg while the echidna can easily reach 7kg in weight.

Both types of monotremes - the platypus and the echidna - are unusual, but perhaps the platypus is considered the most unusual of all.

The platypus has a bill equipped with electroreceptors which it uses to find its food. It must live on land but find its food in the water. It has retractable webbing on its feet so that it can still use its sharp claws to dig.

Monotremes do not have nipples like most mammals, so the young can't suckle milk. Instead, monotremes have pores that ooze milk. The baby monotremes then lap up the milk.

A monotreme. Monotremes consist of platypuses and echidnas.

Animal feed is material of animal or vegetable origin, prepared as feed for domestic or farm animals.

Yes, there are two. They are the 'spiny anteater' - the 'Echidna', and the Duck-billed Platypus. They are both classed as mammals as they have hair covering their bodies (rather than scales or feathers), and they both suckle their young with milk.

Yes a monotreme does have a backbone because it is a type of mammal and a mammal is a vertebrate.